Like many millennials, I’m obsessed with Disney. I grew up during the golden age, and I easily can sing the soundtracks of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King… from start to finish… from memory.
As I’ve embarked on my PR career, I’ve started to appreciate Disney from a different perspective – for its innovation, unparalleled customer experience and content marketing. I was reading this past month’s issue of Fast Company, and I was struck by an old content marketing map from Walt Disney himself, dating back to 1957, and what we still can learn from it today.
- Integrate – One look at the map, and you can see that all of Disney’s teams are constantly working together, around their central hub: creative talent and films. Keep your teams talking to each other to maximize the usage of all of your material. Your web team and your PR/creative team should be in constant contact, as much of your PR/creative team’s content should be featured on your website, whether it’s a bylined article or an infographic.
- Repurpose – Everything Disney does is repurposed and repackaged into each of its entities – music, theme parks, print publications, etc. Today, as the internet has changed the way we market content, Disney has of course, innovated to match. Take their newest blog, Oh My Disney, a hub Disney content modeled after BuzzFeed, with memes, animated .gifs and more.
- Innovation at the center – What’s central to Disney’s content map? Their creative talent. Whether B2B or consumer, innovation is at the center of what you do. Innovate and drive a sense of urgency within your company. With your integrated content marketing plan in place, as you innovate, you can’t lose. Easier said than done, right?
Take a look at Disney’s map – what surprises you? What can you learn from it?