Disney boosts ticket sales using social media
Published July 06, 2010
By utilizing what it believes is a first-of-its-kind application, Disney has managed to harness the power of social media and turn it into sales-driving marketing tool for the recently released Toy Story 3.
Called Disney Tickets Together, the application allows fans to purchase tickets in advance through the company's Facebook homepage. Additionally, the New York Times notes that it encourages users to invite their friends, utilizing the social aspect of the platform.
The application seems to be contributing to the continuing success of the film. Notably, fans are still posting on the film's Facebook page and the Internet Movie Database reports that the film has topped the charts since its release. Toy Story 3 also posted the seventh highest-grossing second weekend ever.
"The whole idea is that no friend gets left behind," said Oliver Luckett, senior vice president and general manager of the company behind Disney's Facebook presence.
The official fan page for the movie has nearly 2 million fans, and the company reported that people were using the application to purchase tickets in groups as large as 80.
Disney Tickets Together shows what companies may be able to achieve by paying special attention to the unique characteristics of specific marketing platforms. Disney knew its target audience for the movie and used the social platform to generate additional word-of-mouth sales. 