How Disney Harnesses Digital Marketing to Take Their Storytelling to New Heights.

Below are the Top Three Digital Marketing Strategies Disney have Implemented to Gain a Forever Loyal Fan (and Customer) Base:

1. Creating Customer Loyalty through Nostalgia

Disney was founded in 1923 and has expanded to take over the world with its storytelling content ever since. The nostalgic world that Disney creates allows people to feel happy, safe and welcome, through revisiting timeless and beloved old classic tales and stories. 

This globally recognized brand has a deep understanding of their cult fanbase and successfully leverages nostalgia marketing to their advantage. The brand revives classics like 'The Lion King' 1994, 'Beauty and the Beast' 1991 and 'The Little Mermaid' 1989, to entertain today's current and soon to be audience, whilst at the same time targeting their existing fanbase. New ParagraphNew Paragraph

Disney strategically evokes emotion out of their audiences by posting older content on their social platforms.  These blast-from-the-past posts allow their fanbase to relive the feelings of comfort, joy and wonder that can be associated with viewing their childhood favourites and increase their love for the brand. A recent example of this is the 100 years of Disney video that was released this year on Disney's socials, honouring the century of new and old classics and magic of the company. Through showing a flashback of movie magic, Disney creates a successful shared experience between audiences, as they feel nostalgic through common memories that arise throughout the Disney flashback video.

2. Consistent Social Media Content Engagement

Disney capitalises on their social media to strengthen brand loyalty and connection through fun content that engages loyal Disney enthusiasts. The company's social media accounts— including Instagram, Facebook and Twitter— focuses on creating and sharing content which encourages audiences to comment and share with others to spark discussion. For example, Disney's Twitter account posts quizzes including "What's your Disney Villain Name?" which enable audiences to associate a level of relatability to Disney characters through providing a deeper level of fictional interaction. This allows Disney fanatics to recognize pieces of themselves within the Disney content they are consuming. This digital marketing strategy harnesses the rise of digital narcissism through increased social media usage, to their advantage to market their content as relatable to multiple audiences. New Paragraph

3. Strong Social Media Hashtag Campaigns

Using hashtags to create social media campaigns can be great for businesses to build brand awareness and reach audiences that they wouldn't normally reach. However, for an extremely well established brand like Disney, creating hashtag campaigns have been used strategically to shift negative perceptions of traditional values associated with the brand's identity and content.New Paragraph

In 2016, Disney created the #DreamBigPrincess campaign which promoted the capturing and sharing of photos of inspirational females to counteract Disney's stereotypical "princess culture". This video and photo series aimed to inspire the next generation of leaders through female empowerment, with Disney aiming to donate $1 to the UN Foundation's female empowerment initiative 'Girl Up' for every like and share. The campaign saw phenomenal results, generating 1 million likes and shares in just five days, and reaffirmed the Disney brand as aligning with modern values of female bravery and courage, thus boosting their positive brand identity. New Paragraph

There is a lot that can be learnt from Disney, as one of this generation's most beloved and talented storytellers and marketers. Through harnessing the use of various digital marketing strategies including nostalgia marketing, social media content engagement and hashtag campaigns, Disney creatively weaves new and old stories into the lives of its audience, establishing its values of joy, wonder and happiness. Through leveraging digital marketing, it is able to stay relevant and connect with new and old audiences in a modern and deeper level of creative storytelling that extends beyond their content and into the lifestyle of fans.New Paragraph