Live from NCDM: For Disney, Purse Strings And Heart Strings Are Interwoven

The Walt Disney Co. knows that, unlike commodities, its offerings occupy places within its customers’ hearts. It captures a fair amount of information geared toward playing to that place, information that ranges from basic visit length, frequency and timing and preferred contact channels to favorite movies and songs, as well as special occasions.

Disney collects this information from all touchpoints, including contact center interactions and check-in and in-room requests. In all, the company collects tens of millions of guests interactions a year, according to Tom Boyles, SVP of global customer managed relationship for The Walt Disney Co.

In return for interacting with Disney, potential visitors can receive tailored itineraries and travel suggestions. Disney can issue recommendations regarding resorts, or where to find favorite characters. It can offer tips regarding the length of stay needed to see all desired attractions.

It can even offer maps of the Magic Kingdom customized to highlight potential visitors’ interests. When Disney first introduced the opportunity to receive customized maps, the company through consumers would choose 15 or so favorites to highlight. Consumers picked an average of 84, proving hey needed to have their expectations managed, regarding the time it would take to see everything.

This, coupled with a nifty display of variable digital printing, was the primary aspect of Disney’s data-based marketing efforts offered by Boyles. He did show one static slide during his keynote that could have been quite interesting. It was a detailed chart showing data capture and processing points and resulting output. But it was too small to reveal any useful information on the flow of data within Disney’s marketing operations.

“I know you can’t read this,” Boyles said. “You’re not supposed to read this, if you could, it wouldn’t be up here.”

Boyles’ presentation featured four commercials for the company’s properties. The spots were pretty, well-constructed and ultimately irrelevant to data-focused marketers.

Boyles presented his commercials and anecdotes during a lunchtime keynote at the National Center for Database Marketing conference. The conference runs through Wednesday.