Title	DISNEY JUNIOR: INTRODUCING NEW PARENTS TO THE MAGIC OF DISNEY JUNIOR
Brand	THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY
Product/Service	DISNEY JUNIOR CHANNEL & SOCIAL PLATFORMS
Category	B12. Use of Social Platforms
Entrant	OMD UK London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	OMD UK London, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement	OMD UK London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Stef Koutroumanidis	OMD EMEA	Social Insights Manager

The Campaign

Our recent research study revealed parents’ expectations of Disney Junior was different to the reality. Parents were expecting a channel full of ‘classic’ Disney 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 the meantime, universally popular and familiar franchises such as Frozen and Minions were encroaching into the pre-school retail space. On 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. Our research revealed that they didn't know or have an affinity with Disney Junior's new generation of stars. Disney Junior is a subscription channel and it was imperative we gave parents a reason to pay for the subscription.

Creative Execution

The campaign transformed Disney Junior’s social media presence. By cleverly linking previous favourite characters with new characters from the channel, we got parents’ attention and showcased new content. Building on the successful social posts, we worked with Disney, licensees and retail partners to make content that would turn viewers into purchasers. Rather than just give our audience straightforward product shots, we showcased products in a much warmer and interesting way; including short videos showing how kids loved playing with and interacting with the characters. We smartly re-targeted parents who had shown the most interest and creative was tested and refined by format, message, product and retailer to optimise sales performance. We also placed tags on Disney’s and our retail partners’ sites, so we could see exactly which posts and videos were achieving the best results.

- The social posts delivered on average 100% extra views and shares compared to previous Disney Junior content. - Paid assets reached over 1 million fans, exceeding Disney paid reach benchmarks by over 150x. The organic posts also exceeded Disney benchmarks. - 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. - The average metric is that 78% of our Facebook subscribers are also viewers of the channel in their markets. Whilst we cannot substantiate the number, this would suggest that we drove another 273,000 TV subscriptions in the first two months. - The retail campaign on social was particularly effective for driving sales. The campaign resulted in thousands of clicks through to the retailer site, delivering a CPS far below the typical costs for those retailers from digital campaigns.

Disney Junior is Disney Channels’ pre-school TV channel operating across Europe, aimed at parents and their toddlers. Our goal is to harness the power of media to increase subscriptions and viewing amongst new parents. Disney uses a variety of touchpoints to promote their content including TV, publication, retail and social. 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.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

We rolled out a social media listening and analytics reporting system. This allowed us to understand what connected with audiences and drove the most positive reactions across social platforms. Making these reports automated across markets meant a huge amount of material could be analysed and interpreted, improving the performance of posts. Based on these insights we then produced creative assets that tapped into parents’ nostalgic love of Disney and tied it specifically to new content, targeting bespoke sub-audiences to generate efficiency. For example, Princess fans got introduced to Sofia, Disney Junior's newest Princess via a familiar older Princess. This content was liked and shared far more than previously, helping us to reach a much broader audience and reducing the need for large paid social budgets. We also knew parents sharing our content was the best way to drive new subscriptions, as parents often follow the recommendations of their peers.