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The Disneyland Report > Disney News > Disney's flashy campaigning sets precedent for Rose Parade marketing potential

Disney News

Disney's flashy campaigning sets precedent for Rose Parade potential

By Gene Maddaus, Pasadena Star News

PASADENA -- The 2005 Rose Parade could not have been more serendipitous for The Walt Disney Co.

And that could be the harbinger of parades to come.

The company was looking for a way to kick off its 18-month marketing campaign, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Disneyland, dubbed "The Happiest Celebration on Earth.'

The campaign would be global, marketing each of 10 Disney theme parks worldwide and heralding the opening in September of an 11th park in Hong Kong.

The venue also had to fit with Disney's wholesome, family-oriented brand.

Then the Tournament of Roses called.

The theme of this year's parade would be "Celebrate Family.' Would Mickey Mouse like to be the grand marshal?

The Mouse didn't need to be asked twice.

"It all started to fall into place,' said Michael Mendenhall, executive vice president of global marketing for Disney. The parade, Mendenhall said, "is a fantastic place to launch major initiatives.'

Corporations have long been a big part of the parade, whether out of a CEO's soft heart for a warm tradition or a CFO's cold eye for the bottom line. But more and more, says outgoing Tournament of Roses President Dave Davis, corporations are having to justify the expense of a float to their shareholders, even as the demands of network television ratings call for bigger, splashier, more entertaining displays.

In typical fashion, Disney went all out this year, putting together a first-of-its-kind opening ceremony, complete with fireworks, at Colorado and Orange Grove boulevards. The ceremony coincided with the debut of a new TV spot on all the major networks and several highly trafficked Web sites, including Yahoo!, MSN and Google.

Watching the parade for the first time was a Chinese television audience of up to 750 million people.

The float, the ceremony, the television spots and the Internet placements all cost money. But the focal point that brought them all together Mickey Mouse sitting in the grand marshal's Packard that was free.

"It was a nice thing for us,' Mendenhall said. "We were very pleased with it.'

Nobody does it like Disney, but other companies use the Rose Parade to attempt to associate their own brands with the Tournament's image.

"One of the strongest brands in the country is the Rose Parade,' said Darrell Brown, a senior vice president with U.S. Bank, which sponsored a float this year for the second time. "It represents all that's good about our society, our communities and our families. I'm hopeful the society at large will look at us and say U.S. Bank is in line with an organization that embraces the best of our community. ... I'm hopeful when they see the U.S. Bank logo and the red, white and blue, they'll have the same emotional reaction they do when they see the Rose Parade.'

Many companies, Davis said, wish there was some concrete way of measuring whether that kind of brand identification occurs, and whether sponsoring a float is worth it to the shareholders.

"There is tremendous interest in some tangible way to measure ROI, return on investment,' Davis said. "Corporate sponsors are now far more interested in ROI.'

Davis said the Tournament of Roses is close to hiring a firm that could do such a study. The Tournament estimates that the parade's domestic television audience is about 50 million people. There is no way of knowing how many watch the parade abroad, because there is no international Nielsen system.

The Tournament has heard from TV networks that in order to boost the ratings and improve the corporate return on investment, the parade needs to become more entertaining, Davis said.

"You'll see some additional entertainment content,' Davis said. "That doesn't mean every float is going to stop and have sky divers. But it might be like what we did this year with the opening in conjunction with Disney's float.'

Larry Palmer, spokesman for Phoenix Decorating Company, said it's possible that floats will evolve in the direction of the highly praised American Honda Motor Co. float, a 207-foot train equipped with a pyrotechnic display.

"The media has suggested that for increased viewership of the parade that there be more entertainment value than a float passing from left to right,' Palmer said. "The suggestion is that there be more there to involve and entertain the viewer.'

Palmer and Davis both said they did not expect the parade to evolve into something like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which features elements of Broadway shows and is more TV-friendly.

"Even while it evolves, I don't think the Tournament of Roses will be anything other than the Tournament of Roses,' Palmer said.

And not every company has the wherewithal or the desire to use the parade as aggressively in marketing as Disney does.

American Honda spokesman Steve Morikawa said the company wants its float to be technologically sophisticated and entertaining, but does not use it as part of a wider campaign.

"We don't market our float,' he said. "You don't see it in a bunch of advertisements.'

Bill Flinn, the Tournament's chief operating officer, said the parade has not reached the degree of commercialization of many other traditional events. The true challenge, he said, is not keeping investors happy but keeping up with the times.

"I don't think the networks are driving the Rose Parade's decisions,' Flinn said. "I think it's the culture and the viewers and the people along the parade route."

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