Disney uses fan sites for 'research'

Northern Sorcerer Mickey

Northern Sorcerer Mickey

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The local news station 'Local 6' recently ran an interesting piece on how close an eye Disney keeps on its online fan community. It focuses largely on Disney podcaster Ricky Brigante of 'Inside The Magic', but has clips from LaughingPlace.com and WDWMagic.com as well. Good stuff.

We in the online community have known this for some time. Back in the the infancy of the web a number of websites were sent cease & desist orders from Disney's lawyers telling them they had to give up their domains with 'Disney' in the title. Even before that it was fairly well known that Disney had people reading the USENET groups. (I bumped into few of the researchers in my days at Disneyland. Both of them were Disney fans too.)

About a year ago Cartoonbrew had sourced confirmation that Disney CEO Bob Iger was looking at their website and had commented on a story they had recently posted. What's interesting about this news story is that it's the first time a Disney executive is quoted as confirming that they do look at websites for research purposes.

So there you are. Be careful what you say. You might make someone change their mind.

View video @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT4l8qZfu04
 
Any marketing exec with half a brain will employ the internet for both marketing and market research. ; What better way to understand what your consumer wants than to hear it straight from them? ; Plus, it's cheap!

I say this from the perspective of someone who has recently taken on a job in online marketing and am stunned by how long it's taken for the bigger companies to realize the power of the internet.

Heck, I've been watching how quickly public feedback (positive or negative) can impact businesses for about 5 years now through other sites. ; Just like "viral marketing" ... you know, like those contests you enter that ask you if you'd like to send the contest notice to your friends... online contests are almost always marketing ploys, and this is like that old shampoo commercial from the early '80s ; "I told two friends... and they told two friends... and so on... and so on... and so on...."

What amazes me is that a news station thought this was actually newsworthy. ; I would have assumed that most people participating in an online community in this day and age would already be aware that the internet is public... and that therefore anyone could be reading what they're posting. ; Even on 'private' forums, anyone can create a profile to dig for whatever their heart desires (I've seen that being done by people who're bound and determined to cause trouble, too... not just legitimate researchers).
 
Disney if your reading this .. don't shut down DM... It's a canadian site promoting you :)
 
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