The Art of Disney Social Media

I am a Disney freak, that is not a new announcement, and I also love marketing and social media, again not a surprise.  A friend recently sent me this article about the Disney marketing strategy for social media.  I believe that Disney is a company that works hard on fostering a creative environment, and pushing their employees to take ideas to the next level.  You never get just a cake; you have a three story cake shaped like a castle.  It is those extra finishing touches that put Disney ahead of the rest, and it looks like they are keeping that philosophy going as they move into the new frontier of social media.

In creating a philosophy or brand it is important to create stories for people to believe in, and to make it apart of their everyday lived experience.  Disney is particularly skilled in that area, and it is definitely happening in the social media department.  The department is nicknamed “Disney Living,” which embodies their social media philosophy.  They are not about selling products or trying to get people to buy things, and that is where I think most people go wrong with social media.  The rest of their marketing department takes care of product launches and other product marketing, Disney Living’s job is to develop a culture of following and learning more about the brands people already love, which surprise leads to higher sales!  Their posts are more informational and “behind the scenes” projects.  This allows the strong Disney fan to develop a further affinity for the brand by learning more about it, while also bringing in more casual viewers to be drawn in to a new side they might not have been aware of before. Case in point this YouTube video released by Disney Living which shows how their large Lego creatures are created.

Another important point this article looks at is the proliferation of online books.  Obviously this is the new frontier of reading and digital media.  It is interesting to learn the Disney strategy in moving forward with this area.  Even more interesting to learn how they are working on digital comic books, since the company recently purchased the rights to the Marvel Comics’ catalogue!

One of my life philosophies is to give, and give generously; this is one of the hallmarks of building communities.  Disney is definitely doing this with their social media, as @DisneyParks is one of my favorite things I follow on Twitter.  With social media, we want to build groups of people, and create stronger emotional ties to the organizations we are promoting.  People do not get on Twitter for ads and people trying to sell things.  They get on Twitter to learn more about their favorite brands, and to develop stronger bonds with people they care about.  When an organization’s social media feels like a person who is sharing a glimpse into their world, that is when we pay attention!

My Childhood Brand

Over the past couple years I have really become interested in branding.  I think it’s fascinating how organizations create logos, catch phrases, and marketing schemes which immediately identify those things with a specific company.  Those brands become the fabric of our world; everyone remembers the catchy jingle from that goofy commercial from our childhood.   Let me take you on a journey to visit a 14 year old Justin, I know a scary place to go! 

Branding was always a part of my mindset, even in the things I did as a kid.  A shining example of this comes from a vacation my family took when I was younger.  We went to visit our cousins who lived in Arizona and traveled through, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, and California.  When we got back to Phoenix, the kids were going to make a casino for the adults.  I distinctly remember that casino in my aunt’s living room because my 14 year old self demanded we had a logo that transcended everything.  The Bayside Casino featured a simple wave logo, that was on all of our signage, from the toy slot machine, to the poker table, and the crazy show we were going to put on.  It seems weird to me that all these years later I remember the direct name and logo for our game of pretend, but that is the power of a brand.

I was a very industrious child, and maybe missed my calling as a marketer or entrepreneur.  In my neighborhood we created a miniature golf course every summer, and the major themes were the same, logs became the boundaries, rocks were the path to the next hole, and all the signs and score cards were consistent.  I used to write a weekly newspaper for our neighborhood, “The Weekly Hillside.”  It had the same front page logo, and pieces, but every summer I made sure to change the font and spruce up the design highlighting the classic look.

Everything I did had a company name and a brand!  Each of those experiences are distinctly memorable, and would be instantly recognizable to my customer base, the neighbors, if I showed them those items today!  These brands were so successful because they were simple and consistent.  When you saw them you knew what it was about, and they had a utility to them that was fun!  They could be used in multiple ways and places and represent the same “company.”  I love to brand the programs and events I do now, but I need to remember those simple and fun designs, they were the strength of the brand!

Make Bold Choices NACURH

So I know I have been posting a lot about this conference, and today is the last one, I promise!  I just had a refreshing and insightful time, and it’s important for me to process and share my experiences when I go through those moments!  Today I want to share a little bit on how NACURH is the ultimate “yes and” positivity experience, and think about how can that be translated to everyday life.

So this conference involves a lot of cheering to represent your school or different regions of the country.  It also involves a lot of dressing in crazy costumes, and playing childhood games when there is down time.  This automatically puts people in a heightened state of being, and provides an atmosphere where you can step outside of your normal comfort zone to try new things.  In improv world we set ourselves up for these experiences by playing warm up games or giving ourselves a moment to shout ready before a scene.  It’s taking that moment to hype yourself up, get a bit of adrenalin flowing, so you can really put it all out there on stage.  Now imagine being in that heightened state for a weekend where you can just have fun!

So the conference is not just going to crazy town with costumes and yelling, there are a ton of learning elements throughout the weekend.  From motivational speakers, roundtables, to educational sessions called programming put on by conference delegations.  While I was at the conference I presented a program called Bold Choices.  It was meant to show some improv games and techniques and connect those ideas to personal development and leadership.  My session did not go as well as I had hoped, and I was really in my head about the whole thing.  Leading up to the start of the program I was having doubts, and thinking about ways to change the ideas, on the whole my flow was not in a good place.  

Luckily NACURH gave me just want I needed, the top 40 programs, as picked by the participants, get to be resented again, and somehow mine was selected.  With my second chance, I decided to rock it out, and I put more positivity and a huge gush of excitement into the event.  This allowed me and the participants get into a great flow, and really put the program on trajectory for higher level of success.  Afterwards I had several people staying around to talk about the event, and one of my favorite comments was, “I always wanted to try improv but never did it, and I thought where else then NACURH to really go and do it.”  It was awesome, and I totally felt in the zone.

Sometimes we get exactly what we need, and NACURH gave me that chance.  I had the opportunity to “yes and” the opportunity to present my program again and it rocked.  Coming out of that experience I evaluated the difference between those two programs and how I approached them.  That insight will help me to be a better presenter in the future, and I am excited for the next time I really get to teach some improv!

So my question is how do we take the NACURH environment out into our everyday life.  To end my session I challenged the attendees to make bold choices in really taking their organizations and the people in them to the next level through a positive manner.  I also asked them to evaluate the number of times they said no in the coming week, and to step into the opportunity of saying yes!

Bane of My Existence – Goes Viral

Viral marketing for The Dark Knight Rises starts with this first official photo of Tom Hardy as Bane!

Christopher Nolan has been making #BoldChoices and knocking the Batman series out of the park since he took over the franchise.  The Dark Knight Rises, just started filming in London, and the whole cast is there: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Anne Hathaway.  Gotham police department cars have been arriving on the streets of London, which probably means shooting will soon move outdoors, and you can guess we will get some fan snap shoots of the characters in costume.  Nolan and the people at Warner Brothers have done an excellent job of getting in front of the paparazzi, and providing the true fans with an exciting viral marketing campaign.

That is what we got on Friday, so let the fun begin.  To start the action, fans needed to tweet the hashtag #thefirerises.  With that your twitter profile picture was added to a conglomerate of pictures creating the first look at Tom Hardy dressed as Bane, which could be found at the website http://www.thedarkknightrises.com/image.html.  As always, love the #BoldChoices Team Nolan and Warner Brothers make with the Batman franchise.  This movie is going to be amazing, and you can feel that momentum with this first image from the film.  Watch out for more viral marketing as “The Fire Rises!”