DUKKY

Kudos to Disney’s marketing team for coming up with inventive ways to promote the new “Alice in Wonderland” movie on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Not that they have to market to me, mind you…I mean, come on-the movie is being made by Tim Burton, in 3-D no less, and Johnny Depp is the Mad Hatter. That in and of itself was enough for me. My calendar is marked, and if I didn’t hear anything further from Disney until March 5th, I’d still show up at the theater.

Of course, let’s pretend, just for a minute, that not everyone shares my obsession with Tim Burton movies that feature Johnny Depp. What’s Disney doing to build buzz around the movie? So far, much of their strategy is focused on engaging fans through Twitter and Facebook. On Facebook, Disney initially set up fan pages for the White Queen, the Red Queen and the Mad Hatter. Then, they invited fans to join the “army” of their favorite character, promising that the teaser trailer for the movie would be released on the fan page of the character with the largest army on July 24th.

The Mad Hatter won the contest, so his Facebook Fan Page has become the focus of Disney’s marketing efforts. Earlier this month, they started a new contest on the Mad Hatter’s page, promising to release 3 new posters to fans-as long as the fans satisfy the Mad Hatter’s demands for increasing number of “likes.” First it was !,000 likes, then 7,500. Now, to release the third poster, he wants 9,000.

Then, on July 23rd at Comic-con, Disney announced that they would be having a secret tea party and that everyone should follow @importantdate on Twitter for details. The Twitter account, written in the “voice” of the Mad Hatter, advised followers how to pick up invitations for the “tea party,” which turned out to be an installation of the Alice in Wonderland Touring Exhibition , with props and scenes from the movie. This first “tea party,” held on July 24th, proved so popular that Disney held additional “tea parties” on the July 25th and 26th, as well.

All in all, this is a fun and interesting example of a viral marketing campaign from a well-established brand. The way Disney has the Facebook page set up, fans are encouraged to promote the movie by the promise of seeing more material from the film.

However, social media marketing is about more than getting your fans your advertise your product for you. After all, you can build awareness simply by plastering ads everywhere. It’s also about building relationships. At Dukky, we strongly believe that when you build a relationship with your customers through social media, they are more likely to convert than if you simply pepper with advertising. Time and time again, we have confirmed this through our dashboards and analytics.

Through social media channels, Disney is giving fans a chance to “step inside” the movie and pretend to interact with the characters. These relationships will serve them well when the movie comes out, as these customers will be more likely not only to buy movie tickets, but also to buy DVDs and associated merchandise.