Social Media – The Pros And Cons For Campaigns

As a company with such a diverse and mass audience, it is difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the time and effort that must go into the upkeep of momentum and analysis of a lot of Disney’s campaigns, especially online. Following their recent advertising for the Epcot Food and Wine Festival, it is clear that Disney’s campaign goals were to increase audience awareness of the event and encourage as many visitors to the park as possible, however, in order to achieve this, there must have been a very detailed and well thought out media plan and strategy, outlining their specific key messages, strategies and tactics.

Being one of the world’s leading conglomerates must require an immense amount of research and planning before any campaign can be published; they have to keep up with every trend, know exactly how to target any given audience and be responsive to competitors and consumers alike. However, with the use of social media, monitoring and responding to audience’s has, arguably, been made easier. For example, through the creation of the hashtag #epcotfoodandwine, Disney created themselves a tool that not only increased awareness, but also ensures consumer engagement through Twitter (and Facebook). Audience’s were able to post about their experiences within the community of the hashtag, which ensured that all Tweets using #epcotfoodandwine were easily accessible and in one place, making it simpler for Disney to monitor content and form conversations with their audience members.

This said, with so much online content, it must take extensive searching and a lot of time to filter through the relevant Tweets and comments and respond to those that are of the greatest relevance or threat to the product or service that is being advertised. As well as this, Disney are required to maintain their reputation and relationship with audience members in order to be in-keeping with the company’s brand identity of being magical, friendly, approachable and encompassing of anyone and everyone, which must be difficult considering the number of comments that they must have to filter through each day.

In conclusion, a company with the reputation and popularity of Disney is required to have an extensive and precise media strategy and plan before any campaign can be released. With so much going on at any one time, Disney have to be on the ball when it comes to monitoring their social media, and they must have detailed plans for not only their current campaigns but also  those that are coming up in order to ensure that audience’s can easily transition from one to the other without being confused or overwhelmed.

A taste of the world – #epcotfoodandwine

The Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2015 gives park goers the opportunity to “taste your way around the world” and try all sorts of cuisine that can be found in some of the world’s most weird and wonderful places, in just one theme park.

As a park that aims to set itself apart from other attractions, such as Magic Kingdom, through it’s use of replicating real life (rather than just bringing imagination to life), Epcot seems to be the perfect place to host the Food and Wine Festival. Due to the nature of the event, Disney have been able to attract older audience’s and provide a more adult friendly event that is still suitable for people of all ages. As a result, it seems only natural for Disney to turn to social media as one of their main marketing tactics and as a way of attracting a mass, global audience.

Using Twitter: Disney’s use of Twitter (click on the link and press play on the top left of the screen)

Their use of the Twitter hashtag has also been taken over to Facebook, with Disney creating a Food and Wine Festival Facebook page where audience’s are able to post photos of the food and wine that they taste. As well as this, the company have uploaded images from the event themselves and attached links to related articles and also directly communicated with audience’s through asking questions.

All of these elements have helped to create a buzz for the festival through the use of informing and also allowing audience’s to be actively involved in the festival, even after they return. This style of marketing helps to bring audience’s and company’s together through their ability to converse and interact with one another. In other words, it gives Disney and its products a personality and a voice and this helps to really bring the magic to life.