Social Media Campaign Works Wonders for Disney Flick

While Disney’s tween movie series High School Musical (HSM) has been wildly popular among 12 to 14 year-olds, older siblings of HSM fans have probably been more excited about the company’s dance-themed flick Step Up and its sequel Step Up 2 the Streets. Released on Valentine’s Day, the sequel was a surprise hit at the box office, thanks in-part to Disney’s use of social media. A post last month on http://social-media-optimization.com/ discussed the success of Step Up’s MySpace campaign.

According to the posting, Disney developed the MySpace page as part of its advertising effort for the original Step Up movie, released in 2006, and updated it for the release of Step Up 2 the Streets. The profile was more than an ad though—users got to interact with the movie’s director and actors, participate in contests, and even had the chance to win a ticket to attend the movie’s premiere. This built buzz, brand awareness and created a loyal following for the movie.

The best part of the campaign? The MySpace page used an in-theater Nielsen NRG survey on opening weekend of Step Up 2 the Streets to measure the results: 49% of survey respondents saw an ad or information pertaining to the movie on MySpace, an increase from the 37% who saw an ad for the original movie on MySpace.

Now that the sequel has been released, Disney plans on switching the focus of the MySpace page to selling DVDs, as they did after the release of the original movie. The Step Up profile has 156,000 friends, a number that continues to grow. Content is constantly updated to keep people coming back for more, a tactic that seems to be working.

Considering the success of the Step Up social media campaign, perhaps Disney should consider developing a MySpace page or a Facebook profile for the High School Musical series. Knowing the marketing machine that Disney is, they probably already have a team working on it.