Disney says "Shine On!"

One thing great about the Disney company is how much it gives back to the community.  Their main focus, as one might guess, is children. 

 On their site, Disney highlights four main goals when working with children.  Their first, is that they create an atmosphere which will garner a positive relationship between children and adults.  The second, is to provide children with a constructive use of their free time.  In other words, Disney hopes to create activities which will be a positive way for children to spend their free time.  The third goal, is to help the children build character and the fourth is to encourage them to demonstrate compassion. 

In order to accomplish these goals, Disney does a huge amount of work with the community.  This past August, Disney donated 2 million school supplies to the schools in Central Florida.  Outside of school, Disney recently sponsored a local teen center at the Central Florida Boys and Girl's Club, providing another place for children to develop and grow.  In 2009 alone, Disney cast members clocked in 251,000 voluntEARs hours, the equivalent to just under 3 years of work with local schools and programs.  They also contributed $28.5 million to their community.

Along with children, Disney also makes significant contributions to the local non-profit organizations. 

These acts are all things which support Disney's goal to make people happy.  This is also good for the company because it not only makes them look great, but makes people want to contribute to their cause.  People can see how much not only just children, but other members of society mean to Disney, and can clearly see the hard work and dedication Disney puts in to bettering others.  I feel these reasons alone are why Disney's work with the communities is great for their image and prove they are doing more than enough. 

Wine and Dine anyone?

One of the great things about the Disney corporation are the numerous events they hold throughout the year.  In order to make these activities successful though, they need to go through numerous steps to assure that.  When it comes to the food and wine festival held October 1st- November 14th, a lot of work went into it's hopeful success.

Now, if you met my sister, you would quickly realize she has a near unhealthy obsession with Disney. Because of this, she knows next to everything going on in Disney and usually relays the message to me.  This is why I have a 10 page booklet in my bedroom convincing me of why I should go with her to the food and wine festival along with a calendar and pricing...this is not a joke.  Fortunately for other siblings in the world and unfortunate for Disney, my sister is a rare breed and this form of information is not always as easily accessible to the rest of the public.  This is where good media relations comes in. 

In order for an event to be successful, a corporation needs to properly use different media aspects.  In Disney's case, on their site alone, there is an entire page dedicated specifically to the festival.  On the page, Disney provides more information to consumers, hopefully giving them a desire to book the trip and maybe spread the word.  Disney also has video's with more information posted on the web.  That particular video features the delectable food offered at the 15th annual festival, the various beverages offered, and other new things added to this year's menu. 

Along with their personal website, Disney has been tweeting on their Parks' twitter about the occasion.  Various posts reference the actual event along with linking the reader to more information.  On the Walt Disney World Facebook page, they also have tidbits of information, again, with links to other pages.  One thing they have done, is create a Facebook game.  This allows someone to have some fun online while Disney still publicises the event.

Along with pages created and ran by Disney, there are also loyal bloggers who follow Disney events and post information on their personal pages.  Dis, a page they declare to be "the internet's largest online guide" to everything Disney, features information on the event.  The personal blog called Disney Blog at Magic Kingdom also has information and tips about the food and wine festival. 

If asked to review Disney's efforts to promote this event, I would have to admit I'm not really impressed.  In my eyes, I don't feel this is one of the more promoted events, and I feel it very will should be.  Disney World for the most part is geared towards children.  The fun rides, the silly characters, and 'wonder of it all' atmosphere is something children love.  Unfortunately, kids grow up and some people find it hard to find reasons to head back down to the amusement parks.  This food and wine festival is a great way to get an adult crowd to attend Epcot and hopefully travel over to the other parks.  Seeing as this is an event lasting from the 1st of October to the 14th of November, that allows a large amount of time for people to enjoy the experience. 

In my opinion, I feel they should have done a better job promoting this event on the networking sites adult use.  Twitter and Facebook are huge among the desired demographics and a simple tweet or post is something that could reach not only thousands, but millions of people instantaniously, and it's FREE!  People literally troll these sites when they should be doing numerous of other things which is why I do give kudos to Disney for creating the Facebook game.  There's no better distraction then a silly mindless game.  I have not seen one commercial for the event which is unfortunate because I feel most adults would love the idea of a vacation centered around great food and booze.  At the end of the day, I feel the 15th Annual Food and Wine Festival is a fun event most people would have a great time at; I just wish Disney had done more to spread the word about it.