Behind disney's "Duffy family" is hot, how long can THE LACK OF STORY IP marketing go

Reporter Li Haoyue

At 3:00 a.m. on December 29, more than 5,000 people lined up at Shanghai Disneyland to buy disney's 2021 "Duffy and Friends Christmas Series." Shanghai Disney customer service introduced to the media that the series contains 6 dolls and 6 keychains (the most popular Ling Na Belle was sold out at the earliest, so this role is not included in the offline), priced at 2148 yuan.

According to media reports, the scene on the day can be called "a chaos": some customers claimed to "queue up to urinate blood"; because the number of queues was too large, many small shops and games were closed on the same day, resulting in some foreign tourists who rushed to play to "make way" for queuing tourists; the price of hotels and early access cards in the park soared, and the series of dolls of 2148 yuan were fried by scalpers to more than 8,000 yuan, and some customers wanted to buy from scalpers but were told to "distribute". It should be noted that the sales form of "distribution" was previously mainly popular among luxury brands.

Shanghai Disneyland officials issued an apology statement after the sale, but it still failed to calm the tourists' complaints about the chaotic management of the park that day. The hats of "hunger marketing" and "connivance scalpers" were buttoned on the heads of Shanghai Disney one by one by users. "Queue for more than 12 hours, I have never been so speechless in my life" "Renamed Duffy and scalpers."

The scalper issue has been repeatedly mentioned, but the official has not been able to solve it. At the same time, in December this year, it was also revealed that Shanghai Disney had staff reselling Disney products at high prices. Although the official said that the person was an intern, he also terminated the contract with the other party and would take further measures. However, the appearance of insiders using this scalping is also one of the reasons for the anger of many users in the comment area.

As for the problem that products have been out of stock, Shanghai Disneyland has also responded many times due to insufficient production capacity during the epidemic.

Some Disney doll lovers told the Securities Daily reporter that the phenomenon of Disney doll queuing only began this summer. Over the past few years, these dolls have been on shelves, no one has bought them for a long time, and they are discounted. "I used to go and buy it casually."

Why can a small doll cause a huge sensation? What is the difference between the Duffy family series IP and the IP created by Disney before?

As a world-renowned IP empire, Disney has created many familiar works, such as the princess series movies and Mickey Mouse series of animations, which have many fans around the world. However, the reporter found that for the 7 dolls in the Duffy family, Disney did not launch a continuous serial story and screen works for these 7 images.

For example, Lingna Belle, the most popular of the Duffy family, was officially launched before this year's National Day. The official only gave Lingna Belle the persona, "a clever and keen little fox who is keen on solving puzzles". The only story extension that can be talked about is that the official first released a 39-second short film, no dubbing, no special effects, no narration, introducing a cute pink fox in the forest to save the lost Duffy.

These "no head and no tail" fragmentary settings do not affect The popularity of Ling Na Belle. Compared with the Weizhentian and Optimus Prime in Universal Studios, which opened on National Day, the Baidu Index shows that from September 30 to December 30, Lingna Belle's overall daily average of 7871 far exceeded Weizhentian's 3643 and Optimus Prime's 1707.

After the official launch, Ling Na Belle's name has been on the hot search many times and frequently. Millions of videos were played, and all of them were tourists interacting with Lingna Belle, played by the staff in the park. What the role of Lingna Belle can provide to visitors depends on how the staff in the doll costume understand the role. For example, the "Lingna Belle's head" incident that appeared in this year's hot search is because the staff who played Lingna Belle on that day refused the request of tourists and made impolite actions. It is inconsistent with the cute image of liveliness, activeness and social love that was shown on the scene before.

"When it was first introduced, I didn't feel anything about this doll, it was just an ordinary pink fox. Later, I wanted to buy it because I saw a lot of interactive videos, and the on-site staff played this role to life. A "role fan" of Ling Na Belle told the Securities Daily reporter. "We all guess that there is more than one staff member who interprets Lingna Belle, but they are all 'Lingna Belle', which enriches The personality of Lingna Belle. The only way for fans to express their love is to buy peripherals, or buy tickets to interact on the spot. ”

Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, told the Securities Daily reporter that the Lingna Belle or Duffy family is hot, in fact, Disney has taken advantage of the current trend of the rise of the new self-media on the Internet, using the play of self-media short videos, without too many stories, and without too much content to support IP.

Jiang Han said that we are now seeing scalpers speculate on Disney products at sky-high prices, and it has been so long that it has not been resolved. Although for the company, the high premium of these products may not directly bring benefits to the park, but more into the pockets of scalpers. However, the high price will make Disney products have a high market potential in the market, so that the products have influence and representation in the market. Disney can use this market potential as a market momentum for the subsequent launch of new dolls and new peripherals.

It is worth mentioning that the "Disneyland, experience and product business" has always been an important source of revenue written by Disney in the financial report.

Previously, Disney announced full-year revenue of $67.418 billion in fiscal year 2021 (ending October 2), up 3% year-on-year; net profit of $1.995 billion, a year-on-year turnaround. Among them, due to the impact of the epidemic, the park traffic is not as good as before, and the number of opening days is shortened, Disneyland's annual revenue is 11.212 billion US dollars, down 8.4% year-on-year, accounting for two-thirds of the revenue of the entire division of the park and derivatives; the operating loss reached 2.213 billion US dollars, and last year's loss was 1.696 billion US dollars, and the loss was further increased.

However, its fourth-quarter data showed that Disneyland, experience and product business revenue was $5.45 billion, up 99% year-on-year and accounting for nearly half of the park's annual revenue.

If the popularity of the Duffy family series IP in China can be maintained, it is likely to help Disney's revenue in fiscal year 2022.

(Edited by Sun Qian)