Theme Park Operator, Tenants Gear Up for Opening
So far, Walt Disney Co. officials have been mum on how they’ll promote their new Downtown Disney complex, set to open in January. But already there are signs that the marketing blitz will be big.
Stories about Downtown Disney and the new California Adventure theme park have been popping up in newspapers. Meanwhile, media and entertainment clients of Merrill Lynch & Co. recently were given a private tour of the park. And some tenants,like Los Angeles-based House of Blues,were exhibitors at the recent La Cumbre Latin American travel trade conference in Anaheim.
Disney officials should have little trouble promoting California Adventure. But the 300,000-square-foot Downtown Disney poses challenges for the 30-plus merchants who will compete for the attention of visitors.
One tenant at the complex said Disney officials are planning a “whole host of events” to market Downtown Disney, a collection of restaurants and entertainment sites between Disneyland and California Adventure. The effort is expected to include “sound bites” for each tenant in the complex.
“They’re spending lots of dollars focused on different venues,” he said.
Downtown Disney is expected to provide a long-missing link for tourist and convention business in Anaheim: restaurants and entertainment close to the convention center, surrounding hotels and the theme parks.
Some Downtown Disney tenants,House of Blues, Rainforest Caf & #233; and H & #228;agen Dazs,already have name recognition. But others, many from Orlando, Fla., will face the challenge of introducing themselves to the West Coast for the first time. And that means they’ll be doing their own promotions, too.
Even Disney-owned ESPN Zone, which should benefit from its own name recognition, expects to do some heavy marketing for its Anaheim location.
“We have a lot of work to do to raise awareness of the Zone concept,” said John Pierce, marketing manager for ESPN Zone.
That concept, he said, is the creation of the “ultimate place for sports fans that is also a family venue.”
ESPN Zone is a sports restaurant and entertainment center that includes a dining area, screening room and sports arena complete with a one-half size NBA court, virtual reality games and a rock-climbing wall.
Though specific marketing campaigns are not yet complete, Pierce said he expects to create different messages for the local and tourist markets.
With 165 video monitors, a fully functional radio studio, TV broadcast capabilities and an endless variety of sports programming, Pierce said the local market should have “lots of reasons to come back.”
“We want it perceived as a local hangout as well as for visitors,” he said.
Pierce declined to reveal specific promotions for the grand opening on Jan. 12, but said there were “several surprises” in the works that included “high-profile athletes and special activities.”
Like many venues in the entertainment industry, ESPN Zone plans to do an earlier, “soft” opening for invited guests. But Pierce said plans for that are not complete, saying the 36,000-square-foot sports facility is looking to hire “400 motivated sports fans” first.
Another newcomer to the West Coast, Latin dining and entertainment club Y Arriba! Y Arriba! of Miami already has outlined extensive marketing plans.
President David Klein said the club is targeting the Latin market, but said that isn’t the only clientele they are seeking.
“More people want to learn about all things Latin today,” Klein said. He said the club hopes to be a “lightning rod” to help the two cultures meet.
Among the plans of Y Arriba! Y Arriba!:
—A sponsorship and marketing pact signed recently with Radio Unica, the national radio brand for Latin Americas that owns radio stations here covering about 97% of the Latin market in Southern California.
—Live remote broadcasts from Downtown Disney and promotion of special events that could include visits by popular Latin soap opera, fashion and sports personalities.
—E-mail and direct mail campaigns to key local organizations.
—Promotion to conventions coming to Anaheim.
—A tie-in with a travel agency that works with Latin American tour groups and a pending agreement with two airlines catering to that market.
Klein said he has a pretty clear view of the difference between marketing to locals and tourists.
The tourist market, he said, is a matter of “short-term work for long-term gain.”
For the local market, Klein said you have to “roll up your sleeves and look at where the locals hang out and target that. You have to target where the market is, not where you’d like them to be.”
Y Arriba! Y Arriba! is the latest effort of the Spanish-Cuban Cachaldora/Currais family, which has roots in the restaurant business that date back 200 years in Cuba. In Miami, the family runs the Club Tropigala at the Fountainbleu Hotel. Three members of the family are involved in the new venture.
In addition, Pat McBride, an entertainment designer who created the Margaritaville concept for Jimmy Buffet and was a founder of Caf & #233; TuTu Tango, is also a partner in the new Latin supper club, as is Klein, a longtime hospitality veteran.
“We have lots of senior level talent,” Klein said. “And we’re very lucky Disney has chosen us to try to represent the Latin world.”
Betting on the Come
Other tenants are relying on Disney’s marketing muscle to draw visitors to their sites.
Seattle-based Something Silver, for one, has no current plans to promote the jewelry retailer before opening, despite the fact that it is the company’s first expansion beyond its roots in the Northwest. In fact, President Tony Swan said the retailer will “probably open the doors and let the millions of people go by.”
Swan said Something Silver has “dramatic” storefronts that draw people in just because of their design.
“We’ll tailor our marketing after we get a feel for how it goes,” Swan said.
Los Angeles-based LaBrea Bakery, which has stores throughout Southern California, also will rely on Disney promotions for its bakery and caf & #233; format at Downtown Disney.
LaBrea Bakery, which will offer both full-service dining and self-serve, to-go options, will include a full coffee and espresso bar and a wine bar.
Senior Vice President Wayne Selness said the company was meeting with Disney officials last week and hadn’t yet finalized specific marketing plans.
Another company coming to the West Coast for the first time is one-of-a-kind gift store Hoypoloi, based in Florida. A spokesman for that company said it relies largely on word-of-mouth for its clientele and had not yet developed any special plans for the Downtown Disney location.
Meanwhile, tenants that also have a presence at the Downtown Disney in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. are likely to rely on their experiences there when gearing up plans for Anaheim.
Lego Imagination Center retail marketing representative Brandy Haynes said its store does well in Orlando, where it promotes to both a local and tourist market. She said she expects the retailer to do the same in Anaheim.
Haynes said there would be special advertising for the new center, as well as some sort of large-scale Lego building to help introduce the store.
Disney Carries the Ball
Thor Degelman, a local theme park consultant and former Disney executive, said he’s not surprised that some tenants aren’t designing their own marketing campaigns, saying that Disney does all the promotion for similar locations in Orlando.
“I’d be surprised if Disney would allow them to do much on their own,” he said. “There’s probably an approval process.”
Degelman said he wouldn’t expect to see an opening event geared just to locals, either. He said he thinks Disney will do its heaviest marketing to conventioneers, who often complained in the past about the lack of nightlife in the area.
Downtown Disney is expected to cater to an adult market that will be attracted to the likes of House of Blues, Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen, Catal Restaurant and Uva Bar by the Patina Group and chef Joachim Splichal, Wolfgang Puck Caf & #233;, Y Arriba! Y Arriba! and ESPN Zone.
Its retail mix, too, is geared to an upscale market, with the likes of Something Silver, Hoypoloi, specialty store Sephora, a division of Louis Vuitton and London-based Basin, a bath and body shop.
The upscale strategy is part of an overall effort to gear the Disneyland expansion to a segment of the population not typically attracted to family-style entertainment without losing its popularity with the family market. Visitors won’t find a McDonald’s at Downtown Disney (there is one in Orlando), but there will be a souvenir element at stores like Starabilias, a gift and novelty store and World of Disney.
“The concept is the same,” Degelman said. n
