Disney “Wish” Social Media Marketing and Strategy
Disney’s Newest Wish
Releasing on November 22, 2023, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ newest feature film, Wish, follows 17-year-old Asha who “wishes upon a star and gets a more direct answer than she bargained for when a trouble-making star comes down from the sky to join her” (IMDB, n.d.). Wish is a coming-of-age movie that blends the magic of Disney with the growing pains of adolescence. A film designed to inspire, Wish is the perfect family film to celebrate Walt Disney Studios’ 100th anniversary and inspire audiences of all ages to wish upon stars again.
Overview of Marketing and Strategies
The target market for Wish includes children, parents of small children, adult fans of animated movies, and Disney fans. Primarily, this target is estimated to be 60% female, 40% male, aged 18–35. This encompasses young adults and parents of small children who will want to see this film as it is unethical to advertise to directly to children (Blitch, 2022). Through a combination of paid and organic media with original and user-generated content (UGC), I would generate engaging and interactive content for the audience to drive interest and ticket sale conversions. Maintaining a consistent brand style and being willing to experiment with new content types will help the social media campaign stand out and find success (Newberry, 2023).
Social Media SMART Goals
Specific: Increase social media engagement and buzz surrounding Disney Wish release leading to ticket pre-sale conversions.
Measurable: Achieve a minimum of 1 million impressions with average engagement rate of 5% on our social media posts.
Achievable: By being present and developing engaging content, we will drive engagement and interaction with our audience and drive ticket pre-sales for opening weekend.
Relevant: Boosting our social media presence and engagement is essential to build excitement for Disney Animation’s movie celebrating the 100 Years of the Disney Studios.
Time-bound: Achieve the set social media strategy within a 3–4-month timeframe before, during, and after the movie’s release.
Wish Campaign Platforms and Expectations
Facebook: With 2.82 billion daily users, Facebook remains a social media powerhouse, ranked as the most popular social media network for men and women aged 35–44 (Beveridge, 2022). Disney’s Facebook pages, Walt Disney Studios and Disney, boast a combined total of 88M likes, meaning that I see the biggest potential audience on this platform. On Facebook, I would plan to have a more personable, family-focused tone of voice due to the older demographic that utilizes this platform (Beveridge, 2022).
On Facebook, I would use 5 hashtags: #WishMovie #DisneyWishMovie #Wish2023 #DisneyStudiosWish #WishUponAStar2023. When selecting influencers to help market Wish, Anna Saccone or Louise Pentland who are recognized as two of the biggest, and most relatable, mommy bloggers on Facebook would fit in with the Disney brand and goals (Ian, 2023). By providing bloggers like Saccone and Pentland early access to Wish during family movie nights and asking them to incorporate the viewing into a blog or post about the movie and themed activities to celebrate, we can more organically reach our audience through these influencers’ pages. By requesting their honest feedback about Wish, our content will also fit in with Saccone and Pentland’s normal “keep it real” content.
Instagram: On Instagram, Disney Animation (@DisneyAnimation) has 4.6M followers, a platform that boasts a fairly even 50/50 split between male and female users amongst various age demographics, with 31.5% of users between 25–34 years of age (McLachlan, 2022). Instagram is poised to host most of the content for Wish due to the highly visual design of the platform meaning that Reels, video and photo posts, and daily Story content can be utilized to draw in the audience and encourage content sharing.
I would use 7 hashtags on Instagram: #WishMovie #DisneyWishMovie #DisneyWish2023 #Disney100Wish #WishUponAStar2023 #AshaAndValentino #DisneyAnimationStudiosWish. Looking at influencer relationships on Instagram, known Disney influencers like theme park journalist Carlye Wisel (@carlyewisel) and Tim Tracker (@thetimtracker) would be partnerships we want to pursue for this campaign. Wisel and Tracker have established Disney-loving followers, as well as being established, unbiased reporters on Disney-related topics who are also parents of small children.
Twitter (X): (DISCLAIMER: I would tentatively move forward with plans for Twitter as Disney has currently halted all advertising and posting on the platform since CEO Elon Musk endorsed antisemitic content last week (Mac et al., 2023).) Disney (@Disney) boasts 10.4M followers on Twitter, a platform with 56.4% male users primarily between the ages of 25–34 (Hirose, 2022). On Twitter, shorter, more down-to-earth content will relate with this younger audience, coupled with images and user-generated content (UGC).
On Twitter, I would use 4 primary hashtags: #WishMovie #DisneyWishMovie #Wish2023 #Disney100Wish. For partnerships on Twitter, I would rely more on brand partnerships with companies like AMC to offer exclusive viewing package opportunities and Wish merchandise for sweepstakes winners. By driving interest and admission to the contest through Disney and AMC’s Twitter profiles, both profiles would benefit through engagement and traffic on these posts.
Conclusion
While it is difficult to choose the most important phase of this campaign, I believe the strategies used during the pre-launch phase would be the most important to this campaign. Building a solid foundation for the content and an established and engaged audience for the build-up to the release of Wish would be vital in achieving my goals. Without a solid pre-launch campaign, we would not see interest and anticipation build for the release and the campaign would fall flat. With a successful pre-launch phase, however, the audience will be driven to see Wish in theaters and will begin building their own social media buzz about the movie to re-ignite the social media strategy and carry it home into next phases of the campaign.
References:
Beveridge, C. (2022, March 24). 19 Facebook Demographics to Inform Your Strategy in 2023. Hootsuite. https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-demographics/
Blitch, K. (2022, November 21). Lecture 14: Crisis Situations & Ethics. UF Mediasite [Online Lecture]. https://mediasite.video.ufl.edu/Mediasite/Play/32fd166722424d8b8de4930301b51fa41d
Hirose, A. (2022, September 20). 24 Twitter Demographics That Matter to Marketers in 2023. Hootsuite. https://blog.hootsuite.com/twitter-demographics/
Ian. (2023, August 14). 40 Must-Follow Mom Bloggers and Social Media Influencers. Pressfarm. https://press.farm/top-40-mom-bloggers-and-social-media-influencers/
IMDB. (n.d.). Wish. IMDB. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11304740/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_wish
Mac, R., Barnes, B., & Hsu, T. (2023, November 17). Advertisers Flee X as Outcry Over Musk’s Endorsement of Antisemitic Post Grows. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/technology/elon-musk-twitter-x-advertisers.html
McLachlan, S. (2022, March 24). Instagram Demographics in 2023: Most Important User Stats for Marketers. Hootsuite. https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-demographics/
Newberry, C. (2023, June 14). How to Build a Strong Brand Voice on Social Media (and Beyond). Hootsuite. https://blog.hootsuite.com/brand-voice/
