Disney (Step Up 2 the Streets)

Disney Studios is known for their massive marketing budget when it comes to promoting new films, which often runs their return on investment (ROI) much lower than it needs to be in many cases. Other production companies had claimed that a high ROI could not be achieved through social marketing, and Step Up 2 the Streets was essentially Disney’s test product on MySpace to determine if such a campaign would be cost-effective.

  • Disney released numerous advertisements on MySpace to spark interest
  • Advertisements were not aimed for a hard sell; merely to communicate the brand
  • Fans were allowed to communicate to the director and the stars through MySpace
  • Over 49% of opening weekend attendees remembered the MySpace ads

By the time that Step Up 2 the Streets launched, Disney had over 156,000 friends on MySpace and several million hits over the course of the campaign. Almost half of the opening weekend respondents remembered seeing the MySpace ads and cited that it was one of the reasons they saw the movie, which was exactly the type of online image Disney had hoped for. More about this study can be found here.

Disney Marketing Its Movies Online

Disney has been continually utilizing social mediums like Facebook and MySpace for online marketing of its movies. The company continually revitalized its profile on MySpace created for its 2006 dance-themed movie “Step Up”. Its approach to steadily maintain contact with its consumers rather than hitting them with marketing message was the major reason behind the huge success of the movie. Its profile on MySpace has more than 156,000 friends. Case study