I had planned to spend two days there, but I was ready to leave now. It wasn’t even the end of day one and I was done. There was something missing. And it wasn’t the first time this had happen to me.
Don’t get me wrong, the theme park I was sitting in was a nice park. It lived up to all the stories I had heard about it. It had all the attractions and the rides. The people watching was amazing. There were all the souvenirs, and over-priced churros I could eat. It just didn’t have…the magic.
I had spent months planning to spend two days lost here in this entertainment wonderland. But I was still headed for the ticket office at Disneyland to see what it would take to extend my park-hopper passes for another day there.
That was when I started asking myself what was so different about Disneyland? Why was I ready to go back there and spend even more time than I had planned, when I didn’t want to spend more time here?
I paid more attention once I got back to Disneyland in hopes of answering that question. And what I discovered surprised me.
The other parks I had been to had the rides, and the kiosks, and the churros, and the toys, just like Disneyland had. But as I sat on the veranda, eating my Mickey-shaped waffles, I realized that Disneyland wasn’t about all of those trappings the way those other parks had been. Here, in the Magic Kingdom, life was about the Magic and those other things were just that, trappings. What mattered in Disneyland was the experience, and, more important, immersing me in that experience. I was an important part of it all. Important enough that even my waffles had to be the right shape. And that was the difference, the Magic. My experience mattered.
Then I started thinking about ways that I could take the Magic home with me and maybe use it to do better creative work…Walt’s “The Magic is in the details” quote ringing in the back of my head.
Eventually, this line of thinking led me on a little detour through some of the things I had been reading on Magic in advertising…sort of.
In her book The Age of Engage, Denise Shiffman talks about the Attention Economy. She explains that if people want to take their message to today’s public, they have to understand that what they are doing is competing in a marketplace where the attention of their audience is the primary, and in fact only, commodity. Success is engaging your audience’s attention long enough to tell them what you want them to hear and getting them to listen. (If you want to read more about the Attention Economy you can look it up at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_economy, but I won’t go into detail here.)
And one of the keys for capturing the attention of your audience is finding a way to get them personally involved in making the message. You have to involve them, personally, in the story you’re trying to tell. You have to make their experience matter.
And that brings us back to the Magic. I like to use Disneyland as an example when I talk about engagement because what really makes Disneyland stand out, and what kept me wanting to go back, is that they are really good at involving you in the process of being Disneyland. The whole place, the waffles…and the Mickey shaped caramel apples I discovered later that day…is designed to make you a part of itself and the ongoing story it’s trying to tell. That’s what the Magic is. The streets, the vehicles, the architecture, the attitude of the people, the food, the entertainers, it’s all designed to pull you into the fabric of Disneyland. When you’re at Disneyland, you aren’t just visiting, you’re a part of it. You’re a character in the story.
And you know what? The most effective branding happening in the marketplace today does exactly the same thing. It makes you part of its story. And, because you are a part of its story, what it has to say, you’re already listening to. It’s the same kind of thing you want to say about you.
Yep, this all popped into my head while I was sitting there at Disneyland waiting for Goofy to walk by my table so I could get his autograph. Go figure. (I wonder if that means I can write the whole vacation off?)
So, if you really want to learn what marketing, or any kind of effective communication is about, go to Disneyland and pay attention how they involve you in their story. Then go back to the real world and try to do the same. Engaging your audience isn’t about using all those flashy tools to keep them on the page and persuade them that your product is the best one for them, it’s about making them an integral part of the same story you’re telling. Once your audience feels like they’re an important part of the story you’re telling, they’ll want to stay. That’s where the Magic is after all.
Oh, and before you leave Main Street, try the waffles…they’re shaped like Mickey.
…I may have already mentioned that.