External Communications Anaylsis †Walt Disney Corporation Essay

Public relations imbibe always realized the importance of communication with its target audiences. Without it, an organization runs the risk of inconsistent semipublic opinion from both its internal and external publics. Effective external communication is a vital part of an organizations public relations strategy. An organization may have several objectives in mind when it communicates with its external publics. Some of these includeProviding information to consumers about the organizations products and servicesPromoting the organizationRespond to inquires cin one caserning the organizations products and servicesAdverting the organizationThis paper will examine the effectiveness of the Walt Disney Companys communications process when promoting its 1995 spud, Pocahontas. This paper will also discuss impact of these effective communications to its external publics.Walt Disney once said, I only hope that we dont lose sight of one thing that it was all started by a mouse. In 1928, W alt Disney and his brother Roy created what would lastly become the Walt Disney Company, in a small office in Los Angeles. One would be hard pressed to find an organization that knows it audience more accurately than the Walt Disney Company.For over 75 years, Disney has been appealing to children and their parents in not only the United States, but also worldwide (Harris, 167). Disney released its very first full-length feature active film, Snow White, in 1937, to critical acclaim and worldwide success. The 1940s and 50s produced films such as Fantasia, Bambi, and Alice in Wonderland. These films became instant classics and the Walt Disney Company found what every(prenominal) company dreams of a recipe for success.After the success in the early 1990s with Beauty and The Beast, Aladdin, and especially the record breaking, The Lion King, Disney needed to find a way to keep its momentum going for its next aerial feature film, Pocahontas. In point to attract public interest, Disney began promoting the film five months before the films scheduled release, in June 1995. A Disney source says the campaign for Pocahontas is every bit as great as it was for The Lion King. In some aspects, its even greater (qtd in Broeske). Disney went on to fuel the media frenzy with a Pocahontas press presentation in New Yorks Central Park on January 31, 1995 (Broeske, 8).Not only did Disney begin promoting the film early, they also launched a 24-city mall display that offered mall goers a sneak peek at the process of creating an animated film. The mall attachment also included a 26-foot replica of John Smiths ship in which kids could climb and explore (Harris, 168). The mall attraction renderd hundreds of thousands of visitors and gathered local publicity in every city reached from February through June 1995 (Harris, 168).Disney also teamed up with such brands as Nestl TM, Mattel TM, and Payless Shoe Source TM, in order to reach its target audience. By offering animated candy bar s, doll figures of the main characters, Pocahontas and John Smith, and offering Native American-style moccasins, Disney was able to cross into the hands of its linchpin target children.In early June, Disneys CEO Michael Eisner went on to invite all New Yorkers to participate in a free lottery for tickets to see Pocahontas, once again in Central Park. Over 500,000 people participated in the lottery and 100,000 lucky winners won the opportunity to see the film on quaternion 120-foot screens (Harris, 168).The impact surrounding the public relations strategies in promoting the Pocahontas film was unprecedented by Disney. In response to the overwhelming success of The Lion King, Disney executives knew they needed to generate a high level of interest in Pocahontas. The story itself, for the first time in Disney history, is based on American History. While there is dummy up adebate between scholars as to whether Pocahontas role in history was accurate, this version focuses on the love story between her and Captain John Smith, a British settler (Broeske, 8). While history dictates that most children do not like movies based on history, Pocahontas proved that opinions could be changed, as it brought over $ three hundred million in box office sales before finally being released on VHS and DVD.The Walt Disney Company name is synonymous with words like wholesome, family values, and moral. Disneys longstanding popularity with children and adults alike has fueled this media juggernaut into one of the largest corporations in the world. Essential to the success of all of the public relations activities was Disneys efforts to leave no mark unturned in its attempts to generate unprecedented interest in its new film, Pocahontas (Harris, 169).Works CitedBroeske, Pat H. The Pocamotion. Entertainment Weekly. 260 (1995) 8Harris, Thomas L. Value Added Public dealing The Secret Weapon of Integrated Marketing. Chicago McGraw-Hill, 1998.