Marketers who sell children’s products face a balancing act: Pitches need to appeal to kids while at the same time inducing grownups to open their wallets.
The Walt Disney Co. usually excels at this. Television commercials for its cruises showcase kid-friendly activities while letting parents know their little darlings would be out from underfoot long enough for adults to enjoy the trip as well. Not bad for a 30-second spot.
In contrast, the Web site for Disney’s movie continuity club (http://disney.videos.go.com/General/splash) attempts to balance targeting both children and adults by having it appeal to neither.
The landing page features nice, clear, large images of Mickey Mouse and Tinkerbell. Oh, and six small images of movies one has to squint to make out. Rolling the cursor over the images doesn’t help: These movies, which Disney is ostensibly selling, don’t link to anything.
They’re just window dressing. Very small, blurry window dressing.
The left of the screen touts the club’s “Special members-only offers, discounts, and exclusive merchandise!” It would have been nice if these words had a link below them, which would allow viewers to discover what those special offers, discounts and merchandise are with one click. They don’t.
Nor is there a click-through under the words “Hundreds of Disney titles to choose from.” The Mouse House is clearly going to make visitors work for their cheese.
What the page has — in abundance — is poorly used blank space. Images and text float at the upper part of the screen, giving the whole spread a top-heavy, unfinished feel. It’s hardly purchase-inspiring.
On the page’s right side are three options allowing visitors to click to the next page. I didn’t have a promotion code to enter, so I went with option two: “Don’t have one? That’s OK… we’ll create one for you!” This was the last I saw of option two or my promised promotion code. But I clicked through anyway.
Ah, finally some movies! Or so I thought. Remember when I said the movies on the landing page were squint-inducingly small? These new images are roughly two-thirds the size of those. At this size, it’s hard to tell Prince Charming from Thumper the rabbit, and either from a speck of dust on my monitor. It’s hard to see how this would appeal to children, who with each generation are increasingly visually oriented.
For those old enough to read, the title of each movie is listed below the image. Unfortunately, the titles are in microscopic letters (mouse type?). A 35-year-old parent will probably be able to make them out. A 65-year-old grandparent is going to have some difficulty. Perhaps Disney’s research has discovered that grandparents aren’t a lucrative market for kids’ products.
The page features 20 Disney movies, which are probably a cross-section of its top sellers. A browsing menu on the left of the screen links to other films, but here this feature has an offhand feeling. The categories – Animated, Live Action, Preschool, Grown Up Hits, Browse A-Z – are uninspired. Given Disney’s vast and rich library, this is a waste.
For instance, since parents visiting the site are probably largely within a certain age range, how about showcasing Disney films released when they were growing up? A twinge of nostalgia can translate nicely into a visceral connection between parent and continuity program.
But from the feel of the site, Disney cares as much about visceral connections as it does continuity marketing. Two pages in, the benefits of belonging to this program aren’t clear. The site has the feel of a basic e-commerce operation someone decided to slap a continuity club over.
Thanks, but Blockbuster is just down the street. And it has Raisinettes at the checkout counter.
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