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Ed
04-09-2008, 03:30 PM
From OrlandoSentinel.com

It's not only about Disney trips, says ad campaign for time shares
Disney pitches time shares as about more than theme parks. They're also about . . .

Jason Garcia
Sentinel Staff Writer
April 9, 2008

Disney Vacation Club has grown rapidly in recent years, adding members and locations at a dizzying rate. But now the Walt Disney Co.'s Celebration-based time-share arm is trying to get over a uniquely Disney hurdle:

Persuading new buyers that Disney Vacation Club is about more than visiting Disney's theme parks.

That challenge is at the heart of a new television commercial Disney has begun airing in several key markets across the country. It is only the fourth TV spot the company has produced to promote its time-share division.

Dubbed "Little Travelers," the 60-second version of the commercial opens with children talking about the places they have been through their families' Disney Vacation Club memberships. Viewers hear about the Grand Canyon, Costa Rica and England before any reference to a theme park. They are treated to images of the Eiffel Tower and Venice canals instead of Cinderella's Castle and the Epcot ball.

Sybil Woolfork, Disney Vacation Club's director of marketing, said the television commercial aims to remove one of the "key barriers" keeping potential time-share buyers from considering Disney's program.

"It really does help to dispel the myth that Disney Vacation Club is only Disney," Woolfork said.

Disney developed the concept with Upshot, a Chicago-based advertising agency whose clients include consumer-products giant Procter & Gamble and beer-maker Miller Brewing Co. The commercial was produced by a local company, Convergence of Orlando.

Theme parks are no doubt a big part of Disney Vacation Club's allure: Six of the club's resorts are at Disney World, and it is adding a location at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif.

But Disney also operates stand-alone time shares in Vero Beach and in Hilton Head, S.C., and plans to build an 800-room hotel and time-share resort in Hawaii, which it expects to open in 2011. And Disney Vacation Club members -- who buy real-estate interests expressed as points rather than bricks-and-mortar units -- are already eligible to use their points at hundreds of non-Disney resorts around the world.

"What we really focus on is going after those consumers who have a real interest in travel and have a respect for our brand," Woolfork said.

The effort to broaden its customer base illustrates both the strengths and weaknesses of the Disney name when it comes to peddling time shares.

On one hand, Disney Vacation Club can command a premium price from customers drawn by Disney's iconic family entertainment and legendary attention to detail. But the strong theme-park association can make it harder to compete for other customers against rivals, such as Orlando-based Marriott Vacation Club, that aren't so closely linked with specific locales.

Disney is smart to address that perception, said Jeremy Glaser, a lodging-industry analyst with Morningstar Inc.

"You think about Disney World, you think about Disneyland. You don't really think that you can take this beach vacation or go skiing or take a Las Vegas vacation," Glaser said. "Getting people to think about Disney not just as theme parks could be valuable."

Woolfork said Disney Vacation Club is testing the television ad in Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia. She said Disney could broaden the ad buy depending on the results in those cities -- whether orders for promotional DVDs offered in the ad rise or visits increase to a Disney Vacation Club "Doorways to Dreams" sales center in a Chicago-area mall.

Disney's fourth television ad for its time-share program comes with the U.S. economy in the midst of a prolonged slump, in large part because of struggling real-estate and financial markets. Glaser said the slump, which threatens to become a full-blown recession, could eat into time-share sales.

"I think when people look at discretionary spending, time shares are places that are pretty easy for some people to cut out," he said.

But Woolfork said Disney Vacation Club hasn't noticed a slowdown so far. "We've actually seen some pretty healthy trends in our business," she said.


Jason Garcia can be reached at [email protected] or 407-420-5414.

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