Executive Summary for the #CruellaCouture Social Media Campaign
In August of 2019, Disney announced the production of Cruella, a live-action origin story film about the wicked antagonist of the 101 Dalmatians franchise, with Emma Stone as the lead actress (Bird, 2021). One and a half years later, in February 2021, Disney publicized a May 2021 release of the movie along with the film’s first trailer. (Disney, 2021). Two months later the company announced the theatrical and Disney Plus release date to be May 28th.
Disney has already done a decent job creating anticipation for Cruella by utilizing their social media accounts to share trailers and the latest happenings. Their decision to post infrequently and refrain from divulging too many details about the film has added to its allure and will likely prompt many people to see the film upon release in order to fill their knowledge gaps. Still, nearly one month before Cruella’s release, Disney hasn’t fully tapped into the potential of social media to promote the film. Utilizing the best and most relevant strategies, the following is an alternative social media marketing strategy for Disney’s Cruella.
First, S.M.A.R.T. goals that align with Disney’s social media objectives should be defined. These goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely and aid in the measurement of the campaign’s return on investment (ROI) (Newberry, 2019; Newberry & Aynsley, 2020). The S.M.A.R.T. goals for the proposed Cruella social media campaign are as follows:
- Increase Disney Plus subscriptions by 30% on premiere weekend
- Increase Disney Plus consumer spending by 90% on premiere weekend
- Boost social share of voice by 5% by the end of Q2
- Make $100 million in theater ticket sales by the end of Q2
The platforms that will be used for the social media campaign will be Facebook (FB) and Instagram (IG) due to their larger Disney following — 53 million and 29 million respectively (Disney, n.d.-a, b). For FB the campaign will utilize the existing @DisneyCruellaDeVil account with 822k followers, while for IG the campaign will utilize the @disneycruella account with 22.7k followers.
These follower counts pale in comparison to the primary Disney accounts, but they were chosen as the campaign’s principal accounts so that the unique voice of Cruella de Vil can be spoken from them. The campaign’s voice will be modeled after the infamously despicable, snobbish, condescending, short-tempered, pitiless, greedy, and stylish nature of the film’s subject (Fandom, n.d.). However, since Disney is a family-centric company the posts will remain family friendly.
FB has the most users of any social network and about 70% of U.S. adults aged 18–64 use it (Statista, 2021). The goal of the campaign is to reach individuals who were children at the time of the 1961 release of the 101 Dalmatians animated film, those who were children during the release of the 1996 live-action film, and to recruit younger fans to the franchise. Therefore, the target market for FB will be individuals ages 13 to 55. The target market for IG will be 18–40 since this represents that majority of the platform’s users
The hashtags that will be used to boost engagement and promote user-generated content will be #disneyscruella and #cruellacouture. The hashtag #disneycruella ensures that Disney remains associated with the film which will help increase the social share of voice for the company. The hashtag #cruellacouture will be related to a challenge where fans are asked to wear their best Cruella themed attire at theaters or while watching the film at home. Such a challenge will create excitement around planning themed watch-parties or cosplay type moments at theaters nationwide while also helping to drives sales for Disney Plus and movie tickets.
Glenn Close, the actress who played Cruella de Vil in the 1996 live-action 101 Dalmatians film, and Emma Stone, the lead of Cruella, will be recruited to create social media content for the film. This content will be used predominantly on the @DisneyCruellaDeVil FB account and the @disneycruella IG account as well as other Disney affiliated accounts as deemed appropriate. Additionally, Disney will reach out to the owner of the Dalmatian Nation IG account, which hosts an extensive collection of Dalmatian photos, to form a collaboration that can be used as a source of user generated content for the campaign (Dalmatian Nation, n.d.).
The following are are three examples of content that could be used for the Cruella campaign:
When used strategically social media is an excellent inbound marketing tool to promote Disney’s streaming content, interact with customers, influence brand reputation, and help to achieve business goals. The detailed social media plan proposed in this executive summary is one example of a social media marketing plan that will propel the company’s success on and offline.
References
Bird, M. (2021, February 22). 16 Things We Know So Far About The New “Cruella” Movie. BuzzFeed. https://www.buzzfeed.com/michelelbird/everything-we-know-about-cruella
Dalmatian Nation. (n.d.). Profile [Instagram]. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from https://www.instagram.com/dalmatiannation/
Disney. (n.d.-a). Profile [Facebook]. Facebook. Retrieved April, 23 2021, from https://www.facebook.com/Disney
Disney. (n.d.-b). Profile [Instagram]. Instagram. Retrieved April, 23 2021, from https://www.instagram.com/disney/
Disney. (2021, February 16). Hello, Cruel World. New Trailer Tomorrow. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CLW5QE-nHH6/
Fandom. (n.d.). Cruella de Vil. https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Cruella_De_Vil#Voice
Newberry, C. (2019). How to Set and Reach Social Media Goals (+10 Goals to Track). Hootsuite Blog. https://blog.hootsuite.com/smart-social-media-goals/
Newberry, C & Aynsley, M. (2020). How to Prove and Improve Social Media ROI (+ Free Tools). Hootsuite Blog. https://blog.hootsuite.com/measure-social-media-roi-business/
Statista. (2021). Percentage of U.S. adults who use Facebook as of February 2021, by age group. https://www.statista.com/statistics/246221/share-of-us-internet-users-who-use-facebook-by-age-group/
