THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY

Lead Agency

OMD

THE MAGIC OF DISNEY JUNIOR

The Challenge

Disney Junior is a highly successful TV channel operating across Europe, aimed at pre-school children. Successful shows such as Doc McStuffins, Sofia the First and The Lion Guard deliver both ratings and huge levels of licensing
revenue and product sales.

But as both parents and their kids view more entertainment digitally and watch TV increasingly on-demand, Disney was struggling to keep up. They spent heavily creating digital games, websites, apps, VOD and social media
channels, but they struggled to makes sense of what was connecting with audiences. This was in turn impacting on Disney Junior’s merchandise sales as parents didn’t know the new characters. In the meantime, universally
popular and familiar franchises such as Frozen and Minions were encroaching into the preschool retail space.

Research from OMD revealed parent’s expectations of Disney Junior was different to the reality. They were expecting a channel full of Disney ‘classic’ content like Dumbo or Cinderella, that they remembered from their
childhood. They were confronted with a host of new characters and shows created specifically for Disney Junior. In social media, we could target very precisely audiences of Disney fans who were also new parents. But the
messaging and shows were not connecting, as they had no familiarity with these new characters. Also, simply running TV trailers via social media was not harnessing the power of the media.

Disney Junior is a subscription channel and it was imperative we gave parents a reason to pay to subscribe.

The Strategy

Following on from our research study, a plan was agreed with Disney:
1) We rolled out a social media listening and analytics reporting system. This allowed us to understand what posts or conversations connected with audiences, across major markets. A trend-spotting alert indicated where we should be looking next for inspiration. This meant Disney finally understood what drove the most positive reactions across Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. Making these reports automate across markets meant a huge amount of material could be analysed and interpreted.
This has helped to hugely improve the performance of posts.
2) Based on these insights we then produced creative assets that truly delivered. We tapped into parents’ nostalgic love of Disney and tied it specifically to new content, targeting bespoke sub-audiences to generate efficiency. Princess fans got introduced to Sofia, Disney Junior’s newest Princess via an older Princess they knew already. Lion King fans
met The Lion Guard, the newest member of the pride. This content was liked and passed on far more than previously, with the audience’s love reducing the need for large paid social budgets.

This new approach was helping us to reach a much broader audience. As new parents shared our content, their friends, who were often also new parents, saw it and liked it too. This made Disney Junior a talking point. We knew
amongst new parents, having momentum was the best way to drive new subscriptions. This was because parents often follow the recommendations of their peers, and toddlers would experience new content and characters alongside their friends, and be desperate to have Disney Junior in their house too.

The Implementation

The campaign turned Disney Junior’s social media presence around. By cleverly linking previous favourite characters with new ones just created for the channel, we got parents’ attention, and showcased new content.
Moving beyond this, love turned into sales. Building on the successful social posts, OMD worked with Disney, licensees and retail partners to make content that would turn viewers into purchasers. We smartly re-targeted parents who’d shown the most interest in our original materials. Creative was tested
and refined by format, message, product and retailer to optimise sales performance.

Rather than just give out audience straightforward product shots we showcased product in a much warmer, interesting way. By showing how kids loved playing with, and interacting with characters in short videos, we drove far more curiosity and eventually sales

We placed tags on Disney’s and our retail partners sites, so we could see exactly which posts and videos were working hardest. The campaign was then refined further to improve overall volumes.

The Result

The new posting style, mixing old with new, drove 100% increases versus the previous average for both likes and shares. This was particularly important, as it drove further, organic views. It meant that subscriptions for all Disney Junior Facebook pages across EMEA grew by 10% in the first two months
of the campaign. This is just over 350,000 new subscribers.

While we don’t know the exact attachment rates of parents moving from subscribing socially, to ordering and paying for the channel, The average metric is that 78% of our Facebook subscribers are also viewers of the channel in their markets. This would suggest that we drove another 273,000 TV
subscriptions in the first two months.

The retail campaign in social was particularly effective for driving sales. The first posts before Christmas received no paid support, but achieved over 559,000 views, thanks to likes and shares. The campaign resulted in thousands of clicks through to the retailer site. Our only cost was production and fees. On
this basis the campaign so far has returned £10.40 for every pound invested in creative production.