Millennials, they’re the age group every advertiser covets. Getting them to buy your product or watch your movie can make the difference between breaking even or hitting the box office jackpot. For its upcoming animated feature “Zootopia,” Disney has been trying to appeal to Millennials by creating marketing pieces that also entertain and have some cultural reference to the group.
For instance Disney has partnered with the king of 6-second Vine video magic Zach King. Here’s Disney’s take:
And here’s the original from King:
The other ‘cool’ sort of Millennial thing to do is to mashup two different things together to make something new. Disney’s done a great job of that with these parodies of popular shows from its Freeform Freeflock cable channel
Baby Daddy
Pretty Little Liars Lemmings
Shadowhunters Shadowherders
When you watch Zootopia, you’ll see how the parodies actually fit pretty well within the framework of the film.
Previously, Disney has released a series of movie poster parodies too:
How about it Millennials? Does Zootopia appeal to you?
Previously: The latest Zootopia trailer and the famous Sloth trailer.
Honestly I don’t really think it’s needed. Maybe it’s because I’ve just always loved Disney stuff or because I can decide if I want to see a movie or not based on the most basic of marketing techniques- the actual trailer- but it sort of seems a bit annoying when studios or anyone else goes out of their way to market “to the millennials.” Sure there’s some techniques that might not work any more, but… I really don’t think there needs to be anything special about a marketing campaign to make it appealing to a certain generation- at least not with Disney movies which have pretty much always been for all ages. Really the only thing that I can think of that might need to be done differently from before in order to reach younger generations is something that most do already- post on social media to make it visible to those who use it. I mean parodies and the inclusion of internet celebrities and such can be fun, but at least for me it has no bearing on if I’d want to see a movie or not. I still leave that up to the actual trailer.
To me, this just looks like Disney is trying to hard. Disney already has the Millenial market. We’re the ones who begged our parents to take us to Lion King several times in the theaters. We grew up loving Disney so catering to our age group specfically says, to me, that they just don’t understand the age group in general. As long as the movie tells a good story, that should be enough. The animal puns in this movie were cute at first, but now they’re just over-doing it. It’s the same reason you don’t put in slang in when you’re writing a book (unless it serves a specific purpose for the plot) because slang gets dates really fast. I’m sure the movie will be great on its own but don’t specifically cater to a target group now or else you’ll run the risk of alienating that same age group of different kids in the future.
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