Featured Session: Shaping Brand Relevance for a New Generation

00:00:00 Philippa, what do you think of Disney? What is the first thing that comes to your mind for me? It's family trips to Disneyland. I grew up in Southern, California, and so I was lucky enough to have Disneyland right down the road. We went every year. And those trips turned into some of my most favorite memories growing up. Two years ago, My siblings and I took our fourteen nieces and nephews to the park for one big family day. It was a chance for us to relive those same special moments with our children. Now, for you, That first Disney memory might be trick or treating as Buzz Lightyear or a Winnie, the Pooh themed birthday party, or maybe. 00:00:58 It was your kids singing " L et It Go " on repeat on a family road trip. This is the legacy of Disney. Long after the details fade, those feelings are still with you. And my point here is that Disney is personal. If you ask ten people, you will get ten different memories. And that's because for over a hundred years, Disney stories. 00:01:29 They've lived with us. They've shaped bedtime routines and family vacations. They become memories that we carry long after the credits roll. Now, after a hundred years of the world's most memorable storytelling, the question is: what comes next? How do we make sure that Disney isn't just a big part of our lives. But for every generation, our children and our grandchildren? 00:02:00 So one of our biggest challenges and opportunities is to stay relevant, even as the world is changing all around us. So what do I mean by relevance? It's quite a fuzzy word these days. But at its heart, relevance means that your brand matters, that people care. Our relationship with our families is not transactional. And for most, it is deeply meaningful. Now that means constantly evolving to meet the needs of this newer generation. Now Walt knew this instinctively. When he built Disneyland, he told the media that the park will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination in the world. And that is true, not just for our theme parks but for our entire company. We are finding new ways to connect with younger generations through. 00:03:00 All forms of storytelling, Including consumer products—an area of the business that I have had the great privilege of leading for the last four years. Now, when you hear "consumer products," you might think theme park merchandise. And yes, this includes hundreds of retail locations at our parks and through our Disney stores. But that is only one part of our world. Disney's licensing and retail business is the largest in the world, with sixty - two billion dollars in. annual retail sales. We span over one hundred categories across more than one hundred and eighty countries. And if we were a standalone company, we would be in the Fortune five hundred Now, You can find Disney branded product at every level of retail from value to luxury year round. But, we are also a leading games licensor and the world's largest children's publishing business. 00:03:58 As the daily touchpoints of Disney, our purpose is simple: we create happiness every day. And one way we do this is by bringing our stories to life across the world's most influential cultural forces, from fashion to gaming, technology, music and more. But we've always played an important part in the Disney pipeline. Now this may look familiar to some of you. It is how Disney has stayed relevant for over a century, By delivering what people love most in the ways that they have come to expect. And for a long time, movies were how most people first connected with Disney. Take Frozen, for example. It started as a movie but quickly became a global phenomenon. We all remember how many Anna and Elsa dresses we saw on that first. 00:04:57 And then the franchise expanded to become a Broadway musical, its own theme park attraction. And in the last decade, we've released a sequel, shorts, books, sing-alongs and even an award-winning kids podcast. But today the movie theater is just one place that people spend their time. Entertainment has exploded into a fast - moving landscape, where content comes in every shape and size. 00:05:27 And it's created, consumed, shared and remix across countless platforms. It is not just how you access the content that has changed. It's also who creates it. Storytelling is now a 24/7 global conversation powered by millions of voices. So what does all of this mean for Disney? It means continuing to embrace change, just like we always have. Relying on legacy alone isn't a strategy for the future. Now, Staying relevant with new generations is not about abandoning what has made us so successful these last hundred years. It has always been about amplifying it across new platforms, industries and forms of media. 00:06:23 People are just as likely to find their next favorite character in a video game as they are in the movie theater. And today, we're only beginning to realize this. It's incredibly exciting. It has actually opened up a whole new world of opportunity. And with this opportunity comes the need to think differently. To thrive in today's environment, our designers and merchandisers, they have to start seeing themselves as content creators. 00:06:55 Mindset is the foundation of everything that you'll see today. Now, of course, everything that we do is truly a team effort. And so to help me illustrate how we're bringing these ideas to life, I'm going to invite a few of our creative leaders on stage, starting with Juan Harris, our head of global marketing. He came with us a little less than a year ago from Nike, and we are absolutely thrilled to have him on board. I asked Juan to join me to talk about most, important part of our brand, which of course is our fans. Ron, welcome to the stage. Thanks, Cecilia. Hi everyone, I'm Ron Ferris. I run marketing at DC Consumer, Products and I'm here to share a different perspective when it comes to marketing one that. 00:07:54 focuses more on fandom. One focus is on energy and emotion, not just clicks and eyeballs. I spent a career studying fandom from music to pop culture to gaming. Disney, above all else, is a really, really special place. It's a tapestry of fandom communities that span our stories and characters. And how we connect with those fans is different from how you engage with traditional consumers. I'm going to show you how we do it, okay? 00:08:24 So, I am going to start with our mission statement, And that is to inspire demand by building culturally relevant moments that earn the right to scale across fandom. And mass communities. So, let's unpack this a little bit. What makes a moment relevant? Who shapes the trend? Well, before we discuss how, first we need to think about who. Who are these people? Who are the consumers that drive fandom and drive culture? who is best to scale that trend? Well, now typically it's not just the old, it's not the rich. It's young people. Young people are who shape the trends. And as you can see here, this a spectrum of youth culture. It spans many age groups as you can see. But, this the area that we tend to focus on :. This older Gen Alpha, young Gen Z, roughly around 14 to 24. This the generation that shapes culture. This who shapes and scales trends. 00:09:23 That's for a few different reasons. The young ones, the older Gen Alpha, they're empowered by this newfound independence from mom and dad. They're figuring out their identity, and they're trying to get into new bands and new things that they'd like to see trend. The older ones in Gen Z are known for that high velocity of sharing content on social, and that's because they got more time than everyone else. They don't have kids, They don't have jobs even that distract them from that new band or that new meme. 00:09:54 Really, really difficult now. It's important to recognize one critical fact : these kids are built different more than any other generation before them. These kids were raised during the COVID years; that's really, really unique to this group. Their relationship with commerce was first formed playing live service video games. Now, Let me give you a sense of what I mean here, just to show you how different this kid is from what we're used to. This the grid layout. This how we all shop. This visual design was first created this way because Amazon wanted to feel familiar, Wanted to feel all of us to feel familiar with how we were taught to shop and how we all learned how to shop, which all came from here: grocery aisles, shelf space. This how our generations were first exposed to shopping. It's what feels familiar to us. But this how Gen Alpha learns to shop. 00:10:54 In Fortnite and Roblox, have shops at the age of nine. Think about that. Any of you with kids in the audience know that feeling when you've seen your kids spend their allowance in these shops constantly? Very little from a lot of people ;, these kids knew how to shop and spend money at an age, probably four years younger than when we first learned how to shop, and their patterns and behaviors are different. They seek urgent lives. They seek always on fresh product, exclusivity, and scarcity. These are not shoppers; they're hunters. And if you don't believe me, Consider this : the two biggest youth trends today are trading sports cards and vintage thrifted. Both are passions that are underpinned by exclusive and scarce product. Both have secondary markets, And both contain that intense thrill of discovery when finding that perfect piece after searching for it for so long. 00:11:53 My daughter will wear a Led Zeppelin t-shirt for its aesthetic, its beautiful trending aesthetic that attracts. She has no idea who the band is. And that's a family issue we are working on today. It is a problem. This generation is disrupting other patterns too. Video games are as big as box office right now. YouTube shorts are the new Saturday morning cartoons, and TikTok and creators are the new playground talk. Now this is one of our key consumer segments. At an individual level, their energy and their scale, how they scale ideas, affects all of our segments, all other segments families kids everything across mass retail. But you have to start with this set first. Understand how they shape the trend and watch how that trend scales across the entire ecosystem. So when you understand how trends are shaped, that's a different story and we're going to go through that right now. This is the branded ecosystem. It's comprised of three tiers. 00:12:53 subculture, pop culture, and mass culture. In the wider circle are the broad baseball fans. That middle circle, pop culture, those are Yankee fans. And then the subculture in the middle, those are the Bleacher Creatures, the face painters. The ones that are really really die hard. And the goal is to harmonize all of these in this ecosystem. So it creates a thriving fandom community. Now let's click and go one level deeper. Subculture is made up of those who shape the trend. Pop culture is made up of those who chase the trend. They're the ones thirsty, looking for something more. And mass culture are made up of those who casually follow follow the trend. Now, those that sit in a subculture we call those the purists. They're super hardcore. Something so hardcore that they actually they can tend to alienate all the other fans, which isn't good. Those in a pop culture are your explorers. They seek something different and they embrace it. 00:13:52 chase the trend. That's where the bulk of our value comes from. And then the casual ones are the ones who steal the trend. Now, sometimes these groups are in harmony, sometimes they aren't. Purists at times hold the lore just too close. I am a purist Star Wars fan, okay? A Stormtrooper to me should look the exact same as it did in nineteen seventy seven when I fell first in love with that fandom, but my fifteen year old son is an explorer. The last thing he wants to do is hang out his dad's stormtrooper. He wants his own version of a stormtrooper. He wants one that he can remix and call his own. And that, my friends, is the tension that fuels the passion of a fandom community. It could be a stormtrooper, an Air Force One, whatever it is you have to remix your stories to grow with youth culture. You have to make sure that you embrace the purists and without alienating the explorers or else the trend dies. 00:14:50 Now we have a playbook for this. If there is the way we look at it, this is how we fuel and shape culture. Our playbook has three ingredients: story, product, and experience. Story is the most important; that's the lore. And shape will remix our stories to drive energy and emotion across different segments of our consumers. Think of like Miles Morales Spider-Man; to me, that's a remixed version of Peter Parker Spider-Man. Peter Parker Spider-Man is about. loves chemistry and photojournalism. My son loves none of those things. He loves graffiti and hip hop. That's Miles Morales Spider Man. He's the Spider Man of identity and self expression, Peter Parker's the Spider Man of responsibility. And that's how you remix a character, and that's what's really important to embrace this next generation, to think differently about how you think of your story and your world. Products are the high heat drops that express the key themes in stories that can. 00:15:49 compelling and surprising way. That I can do fashion or streetwear, top trading cards, vinyl plush toys, video game skins different ways meeting the consumer where they are. And then lastly are experiences. This the consumer journey. This the way a fan unlocks the product or story over a series of moments. It could be a blind box of Stitch at Pop Mart or an Easter egg at the end of a Marvel film that fuels and drives more story. Or it could be transmedia was my favorite You take an Easter egg in a video game that can unlock more story that shows up as short form content on Disney Plus. Those journeys, those fun ingredients, that's part of live and that's the experience these consumers love. This our playbook. This where we meet the consumer where they are to fuel their fandom. Now, You're going to hear a lot more today about how we fuel this across our experience. I'm going to now hand it back to Fatima. 00:16:47 And she'll walk you through how it manifests across some of our current programs at Disney. Thank you all so much. What Ronda just shared gets to the core of what we are here to talk about today, which is how to stay relevant for today's audiences. And we're doing that by focusing on three key strategies. First, meet your audience where they are already spending their time. Welcome to spaces where remixing and creation are already happening. Today's consumers expect to have a voice, and they're looking for community and shared experiences on these platforms. Second, build emotional connections at every touchpoint. Make every interaction more than just a transaction ; make it a moment that is genuinely felt. And the third one is all about unexpected. 00:17:46 But, authentic collaborations and how they can introduce your brand to new audiences in fresh and memorable ways. So, next, I'd like to show how this work comes to life and how it's opening up different pathways that resonate with our consumers. For example, Gaming has become not only a huge business for us, but also an incredibly important entry point into Disney. In many cases, it is the first place that families meet a character. character or get pulled into a new story. Our gaming team partners with the top developers to build award-winning experiences. In fact, Nine of our gaming franchises have each grossed more than a billion dollars in sales, And Disney mobile games have been installed more than one point five billion times to date. Now, What makes these games so successful is not simply that we are adapting films into a new format. 00:18:46 games with their own form of original and immersive storytelling. So to talk more about how they are building on our momentum and taking games to the next level, I now like to invite Sean Shawpaw, Disney's EVP of Games and Digital Entertainment, to the stage. Welcome. Great to be here. Great to be here. Nice crowd. So, From hearing, you talk about a lot, of course, is games' role within the Disney ecosystem, And I'd love for you to talk a little bit about the unique role that Disney plays within that flywheel. Yeah, So I think the original Disney flywheel, most people are aware of that founding the company a long time ago, and Walt set out to create great films and shorts that really served this purpose to create great stories for that medium, but also. 00:19:44 So, Serve a very important downstream opportunity for theme park expressions and other things that now serve as the foundation for our company. Certainly, We view games as pivotal to that modern flywheel—a place that is true content where folks really start to discover and intersect with our characters, stories, and worlds in really deep immersive ways. And so, we certainly think it's an "and" next to films, next to TV shows, next to great physical attractions at our team. 00:20:15 Our true content that bring people into our world every day. So you just referenced that integration with the other parts of the company and games really being part of this content. I thought folks in the room might find it interesting how we make that happen within the creative business. Yeah, so roughly eight years ago, We made a conscious decision to really focus games in a way that, again served this medium specifically. For a long time, we would do retellings of films and other things that really serve more of a marketing purpose for the broader company. And, we really repurpose games very intentionally to be true original stories built for this medium specifically. So, working with filmmakers, working with creatives around the company, and then most importantly, working with the best game developers anywhere in the world across mobile games, console games, PC games to really make the best product. Make products that really did our IP justice. 00:21:14 who creatives on both sides of the table. So again, this wasn't us going and saying, "We want to make a game that does this." It was really sitting down with creatives on both sides saying, "What is the best game we can make? What is the story you want to tell here, that is truly original for this medium. And again, not something that people have seen before? " And, that goal for us was really to build franchises in games the same way we have in film and television and other parts of the company. And that really serves this foundational purpose of allowing us to storytell in a really unique way and build these audiences that we can continue to serve, hopefully for many years to come. And you talked before your team actually reads the scripts, for example, Of Marvel movies and figures out where are those organic points where you can sort of really pull a character or storyline or a compelling game. Yeah, we spend a lot of time with filmmakers like I said. 00:22:12 Where, there's opportunity to tell stories that might not show up on the big screen, or can be new extensions of stories that have great followings, But we want to create new fandom in certain areas that we think can be really meaningful and interesting. That's a really interesting fun collaboration for a lot of people. So I think it probably goes without saying here. : the entertainment industry is going through a period of disruption. Gaming and metaverse is also going through quite a bit of disruption. We talk about this all But I think the audience would find it interesting to understand better how we're thinking about addressing that head on. Yeah, so the point I just made, We spent a lot of time building this foundational business that is rooted in really great console, mobile, PC games. Building those great franchises you got to see a reference a minute ago. But we're also very mindful of where the world has gone. Certainly games is going through a massive disruption with big ecosystem game platforms most. 00:23:12 Roblox and Fortnite, where these effectively now are massive social platforms, right? Where kids are spending and adults are spending hours and hours a day together playing games, but also more broadly creating their own content, watching content in a lot of cases. And for us, that's you know serves a very interesting purpose as we think about how we address that consumer in a way that again is not single player or single. singular experiences that we again have been focused on for many years successfully, Which we still think is going to play a meaningful role for hopefully a long time. But, we also felt like we needed a place that we can bring those audiences together to do all of those behaviors in one connected space. We announced the partnership a couple of years ago with Epic Games to build out this massive Disney universe. That's going to bring everything we do with the company together into that space, a platform rooted in games. 00:24:10 We've got to make these foundational, big live service ecosystem games great. Then that should allow us, and hopefully will allow us, To bring our great film and television content to really enable the creator community for the first time in our company in a really material way to go create their own Disney games and Disney stories in a substantive way. And we think again, foundationally that's a space we need to play. It's a space that I think no company is better positioned to own than us. But we've got to go meet that mark, and that's something we're really excited about. Well, as you know, This in our partnership with Epic. Of course, that was your idea really creating this new digital universe out there tied to Disney. Can you give an example of how would we see that coming to life? I mean, Think about, for example, our physical parks. And then this new, you know Disney digital ecosystem. Give some examples. Yeah, I think t here is one really good illustration on the digital side that we did. 00:25:09 Remember where we took over Fortnite with The Simpsons, And we had a whole season of the game that was written by the creators of the show. So Matt Groening, Al Selman, And those guys who write the great Simpsons TV show wrote the game uh season of the game in Fortnite. We had great linear content that was paired with that season that aired on Disney. Plus. That was on YouTube. So this sort of cross-format storytelling is something we think is very interesting. 00:25:39 We're incredibly well positioned to do, And the Simpsons was a great illustration, just one IP and one story for one season. But, you can imagine us having a space that we can program and do that with across all the stories and things that we do around the company. So, that was a great sort of digital illustration between games and linear content. To Celia's point, We also think the physical world with our theme parks is ripe for bringing into a digital world. So. great experiences that folks have inside of our theme parks every day. When you leave, you leave, but we think there's a way to carry that consumer through those experiences, gamifying those experiences at the park that have relevance in the digital world, creating connectivity through games. When we experience a great ride, We can do things again that we feel like can carry that consumer when they get in the car. They can jump on their phone ;. There's resonance to the things that they're doing between the physical and digital space. And I think we're just. 00:26:37 Starting to tap into what that can mean and really create, hopefully, really unique experiences that again cross over. It's not just something that is us trying to connect in a less interesting way. We talk a lot about physical and digital in the world, But I think we're hopefully uniquely positioned to do it in a way that drives some meaningful engagement and creates experiences that are again unique to us through the experience we have across both the physical and digital. gaming industry and how we're thinking about it. Any last takeaways for the audience? Yeah, I would just say, look, I think games is a space that people obviously are heavily focused on for good reasons. There's massive audiences in these spaces. I would just say for us and I think for the world, it's about creating great content built for this medium. Authentic experiences. I think there's a lot of things that people can do that are maybe a little more box checking that are, you know, frankly, less interesting. And I would just say for us. 00:27:36 And folks that have passion for this industry build great products, create really authentic experiences built for this medium. And I think there's big payoffs there for this consumer base and potential brands that want to play on the stage. Thank you so much. Our second takeaway gets to something truly powerful: developing emotional connections. Why should consumers Care about your brand over everything else that is competing for their time and attention. And this isn't unique to any one industry. Every brand across every category can benefit from investing in emotion. Modern audiences aren't always looking for faster transactions. ; they're actually looking for experiences that move them. And as Vaughn shared earlier, we believe that this is not a passing trend; it is a fundamental. 00:28:36 shift in what people value. A shift that challenges every brand to show up with more intention, including ours. Now, people naturally associate creativity with Disney, but what actually fuels our emotional resonance actually isn't creativity alone. It is creativity with heart. I'd like to now welcome to the stage someone who lives and breathes this idea, Marcus Rosey, our global head of creative. 00:29:35 makes people feel. And so, how do you really kind of move that emotion into your creative process, Marcus and the team? Yeah, it's a great question. For us, emotion is foundational in really everything that we do. Simply put, emotion moves people. And at Disney before we say pencil touches paper, we always start with the feeling. What is what is the feeling that we are targeting? And a question for all of you: is when was the last time that a brand actually moved you, not impressed you, not surprised you, but really made you feel something. And that feeling is always whatever it might be. That feeling is always our starting point. We don't begin with what do we want someone to buy? Or what do we want someone to click? That's purely transactional. We always start with a different question, which is what do we want people to feel? 00:30:33 And once we define that emotional destination, whether it is wonder or nostalgia or humor or joy, whatever it may be, everything else actually becomes quite a simple set of design choices: the visuals, the product, the retail experience. Because emotion is really what turns a moment into a memory. Yeah, and we're going to talk a lot about memory. I've heard us speak about it a lot today. Memory is really important for most stuff. So let's. 00:31:03 concrete. One of our most recent examples that I think really brought this notion of community to life, and that was our activation over the holidays with Selfridges. Yeah, I hope you can all see that. It was beautiful. This was a dream project for all of us. If you don't know, Selfridges is a luxury department store right in the heart of London in Oxford Street, and during the holidays they transform the store inside and out into the must-see destination is beautiful. And like everything that we do, uh we always start with that question when we sat down with Selfridges was, you know, what do we want people to feel? And obviously the holidays come with so much emotion anyway. Uh for us, the emotional destination was quite simple. It was how do we create these sense of childlike wonder? So in every product and retail and experience is how do we deliver. 00:32:03 And again, I hope you can see this on the left and right, But we worked with our amazing Disney Imagineers, and we turned the exterior of Selfridges into a kinetic light show with the Disney castle right in the center. And every hour, on the hour, the entire building comes alive with animation and music. And as we were right in in the heart of London, we leaned into distinctly British stories. So, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland. That authenticity was important. Absolutely one to one donations is just really great for British stories, and we reimagined those stories in new ways that felt both classic and true to the heritage and the history, but with a modern twist. We were there. We were there. In fact, Oxford Street was shut down. It was when you sort of when thousands of people. 00:33:00 Stop and look up all at the same time. You know you've sort of created something more than beauty; you've created a memory. It's really powerful. Now, it was a special one, and I want to segue into another really special example, And this was our collaboration with Balmain in to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of The Lion King. And, this was a real passion project for Olivia Rastegui, who is the former creative director for Balmain, and it was a special one too so Tell us a little bit about that. Firstly, I can't believe it was thirty years since the original Lion King came out. It makes me feel very old. When that movie did come out, It gave us all a glimpse into a part of the world that many had never experienced in sort of a ninety - minute block. It transported entire families into an entirely new world—new colors, new characters, new stories, new songs—and it really made something distant. 00:33:59 feel personal and universal all at the same time. And, you know, if we boil it all down, Really, that's the power of great storytelling :, not just to entertain, but to transport into magical, beautiful worlds. Yeah. So, when it came around to working with the incredible brand Balmain to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary, we made a very intentional choice: we went back to the source. We shot on location in South Africa. We worked with African crews and just incredible African talent. And we really grounded the content in authentic perspectives. We didn't retell the story; that was never the intention. We reconnected with the roots of the story, and what came out felt new and fresh but so instantly familiar. Ron spoke about this a little bit earlier. 00:34:56 Earlier, when three things combine when content, product, and experience works in such perfect harmony, Consumers are not just buying into the products ;. They really feel like they're part of the story. Which is again being part of the story is so critical. So we actually got a clip today. Can we get a clip? 00:35:37 enjoy watching it. The music is great, good volume, And it does really does showcase that notion of how product and content are coming together, that storytelling in unique ways more than ever before. So, kind of sticking with this theme, we're going to take a different lens on it now. We're going to stick with this theme of emotional connection. And interestingly, One thing that does not get talked about that often, but is quite powerful is scent. So talk to us a little bit about how you're looking In there, absolutely, it's fascinating. Out of all of our senses, scent is the only one with a direct connection to emotion and memory. It sort of bypasses the rational part of our brain. That's why scent is it's so incredibly powerful. It can instantly transport you back to a place or a feeling in really a way that almost nothing else can. When I experience the scent of sunscreen for. 00:36:36 For example, I am seven years old. I am on a beach with my grandparents and I am Scottish, and it was always freezing. So when we had the opportunity to work with that in forty worlds, we asked, " W hat, if scent could give Disney princesses a totally different dimension that we had never experienced before? What if you could experience Ariel's world through scent or what is Cinderella's?" 00:37:07 That's right, it really does. We've never explored it, right? So, the first Princess collection was a great success, and it sort of showed us the power of multi-sensory storytelling. We think there's something really powerful in that multi-sensory storytelling. And it begs a question: what about the villains, right? We love the villains, right? I think we may have to do something with the villain. You know, Disney loves a good villain. I think there's potential there so. There is, having some fun with this one, which in the cultural podcast, right? Absolutely to go darker and bolder and a little bit more dramatic. Um, which again was exactly what fans were craving. So every fragrance started with that same question we talked about earlier, which is what do you want people to feel? Right after that, we built each unique scent for each villain based on that emotional uh destination. So just a fascinating area. 00:38:05 All right, we're going to stick with this theme. Then, where are we going next? So, let's go to taste. What's about this one? Yeah, so we're going from scent to taste. We are. This was a fun one. This was pretty cool. So when we sat down with our friends at Oreo, The question wasn't, you know what goes what art goes on the pack ; it was frankly, how do we create something that fans? We want to explore collect. The ROM talks a lot about collectibility and the power of collectibility. And honestly, how do we create something that fans can just geek out over? So we developed thirty-two unique cookies, which is the most that Oreo has ever developed in a single series. And authenticity really mattered. I think you've heard that a lot today from us. We worked with legendary Marvel comic book artists. 00:39:04 To make sure the creative felt true to the brands that felt dynamic and fresh, and then we added something that only Oreo could add. We got to keep it interesting, yeah, With these color changing cream, believe it or not color changing cream, which was you know innovation in the products itself. And our fans loved it. That took us straight to chapter two where we went full villain mode. I am feeling like t here is a bit of a theme going on here. where we had Doctor Doom, we had a new flavor, a new color. So it's fun to lean into some of the newer stories. It is. Doom's going to be great. And there was the fans loved it, right? That same sort of obsessive fan energy. And that's how we knew that it was working, right? The fans weren't just buying the cookies ;. They were hunting for designs ;. They were debating online. What was the best art pack ; they were asking who is the next villain? 00:40:02 Going back to some of these problems, talking about earlier that's right. So, yeah it was a great collaboration. So, You know, just to come in full circle to see it for us that emotional connection is really at the heart of everything that we do at Disney Consumer, Products. And indeed, at the Walt Disney Company. Thank you so much for joining us today. It's been a delight to have you here. 00:40:32 Building on this theme of authenticity, let's talk about collaborations. Pairings that are unexpected, but at the same time unmistakably true to your brand. As we dig in on how we bring that to life, I'd now like to invite Bobby Kim, our Global Creative Director, to join the conversation. Bobby come on out! 00:41:05 Bobby, thanks for joining us. Great to have you here. Thanks for having me. Now, for those of you that don't know, Bobby founded the streetwear brand The Hundreds, and he joined Disney about a year ago, and we could not be more delighted to have you with us. Thanks, Katia. Hey everyone, I'm Bobby Kim also known as Bobby Hundreds outside of here. I spent the last 23 years building a streetwear brand out of Los Angeles with my buddy Ben and talk about unlikely parents or two kids from opposite sides. out to the tracks, and we came together around our shared love of subcultures. We designed a brand about our background, our experiences, and funneled it into one project. It evolved into a global street art community. But it's funny that coming full circle, our first big collaboration was with the Walt Disney Company. And now this a couple decades later. This incredible circle! Yeah, it's just super ironic that happened that way. 00:42:05 Especially because at the time it was highly unusual, if not almost antithetical, For a streetwear brand for a couple artists to be partnering with a big entertainment studio. You can imagine what the community must have felt like at that time. But the project worked out really well. And it worked out well because it came from a place of love. I truly identified with The Lost Boys from Peter Pan of all the characters and all the IP that Disney had to offer. You see it, how do you see it? These characters are lovable but they're rebellious. They're stylish, they dress cool, and they never grew up. So I am very much a Lost Boy myself. But when you look at it that way, the project instantly sold out; was successful to their lines across the country. It wasn't. 00:43:03 Just about the design, and it wasn't about the hype and the marketing at the time. It was because the project and the collaboration was so authentic to us, and it was a story that only we could tell. Now, Something I do want to kind of drill down on here is social collaboration—something that, you know a lot about. Let's be honest; there is a lot of collabs happening out there—some good, you know, some better than others. What do you think makes a collaboration? 00:43:33 Well, look at busy. We have no shortage of opportunities. We have no shortage of dance partners that we can be paired with. So, so much of the creative actually comes down to the curation. Now, my philosophy with collaborations has always been when you collaborate with a partner, it actually says more about you than it does the partner. It's a way for you to highlight the nuances and the facets of your brand that. Maybe wouldn't typically get to tell, but would make you multifaceted, have depth and have nuance. And, you get to do it by partnering with a collaborator who might highlight some of those characteristics. So I think the first step and the most important step is looking deep within your own DNA, your own lore, your narrative. And that will lead you to the partners that you choose to collaborate with. 00:44:29 So, you just touched on Bobby, And certainly, I think t here is been a theme. This afternoon is this notion of cultural relevancy and how we are really leaning into those spaces that shape culture a little bit fashion, sports, tech, gaming, and beyond. So I now want to shift gears to talk about some example, where we're going to stop here in the sports space. Sports is one of the world's most unifying cultural forces. And one thing that I think is really appealing to us is like D isn ey ;. They inspire huge fans. And there's a lot of passionate Disney fans, and there's also a lot of passionate sports fans out there. And. So it was a really interesting way for us to think about how we introduce new consumers into our brands and franchises. So, one example recent example: we had an incredible opportunity to partner with Formula One. They have a massive global fan base of eight hundred and sixty million. And when we launched the partnership last May with this kickoff spot, F one reported that it was. 00:45:28 It had the highest engagement out of any partnership announcement they had ever done. So in case you missed it, go ahead and take a quick look. 00:46:00 So it was a fun one. Tell us a little bit more about our F1 and Disney collab. Yeah, are there any F1 fans out there? You guys love F1, yeah? So, F1 and Disney is about driving culture, no pun, intended driving culture, but it's about exploring these deep fandoms and these deep communities around sport and seeing what's possible on the front lines of sport and especially product and fashion. We're doing all three things that we talked about today with F1 and Disney, we're showing up where the fans are through digital content. We're providing these immersive emotional experiences. We're showing up trackside at Grand Prixs. We were just out in Shanghai, if you can look up some of that content, but we had great product, a lot of amazing merchandise, cool plush toys, Mickey Minnie dipped head to toe in the uniforms. 00:46:56 Third, it was an unexpected collaboration. It was a pairing that you wouldn't expect to pay off in this way, And it worked because we told the story so authentically that you almost wonder how this story never existed before. Now we've got a lot of collaborations, but this one really popped. It was special, really sparkly. What do you think made it stand out? Um, I think. Look, I went to the Las Vegas Grand Prix last year. I don't know if anyone was there. When we debuted and premiered this collaboration, it wasn't until I was walking the pit, Walking trackside that I realized this wasn't just another logo slap license collaboration that you might typically expect from two powerhouse brands, the way that we have. And I think you have to establish the context. We're living in a world that's quite divided, even within sports. Everyone picks a team. 00:47:54 When you tell someone that you are into F one, they're going to say, "Oh, what team are you on? You know who's your driver?" Right? These are the first questions that you get asked. And when Disney entered the picture with F one, you realize how quickly everyone bonded to Team Disney. They were all rooting for Mickey. That was their favorite driver. Mickey was the only one that could go from garage to garage, taking photos with all the drivers smiling. He brought the entire sport and culture together, and he opened it up so that everyone else could enter. And that's when I realized that the power of Disney goes far, far beyond collaborations, far beyond licensing. It's about opening up these worlds and inviting others in. Great. I think we feel that this collaboration has a lot of potential for the reasons that you just mentioned. And. So I am very excited today to reveal that we're expanding our " C ool as a M atch " campaign to the F One Academy. 00:48:52 all-female racing series created by Formula One to develop the next generation of drivers. And coming to us from Shanghai, where she's in town for the Chinese Grand Prix, here is a message from F1 Academy Managing Director Susie Wolff. I'm Susie Wolff here at Shanghai Disney Resort with F1 Academy, and we are thrilled to announce that Fuel The Magic will be expanding to F1 Academy beginning this spring. It will spotlight Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck through exclusive merchandise, special on-site character moments, and original content designed to engage existing and new fans. The collaboration is a celebration of confidence, individuality, and ambition brought to life through Minnie and Daisy Duck, whose friendship and fearless style embody the power of women supporting women. 00:49:46 By combining Disney's creativity with F1 Academy's ambition, We're excited that Fuel the Magic will be a part of shaping the next generation of fans, racers and leaders throughout the globe. We cannot leave here today without talking about K - pop and our Blackpink capsule that we just launched with Complex. So, for those that don't know, Blackpink's influence is unmatched with 48 billion streams, twenty million records sold, and a four hundred million combined social following. They are a force. Bobby, tell us what is this collab all about? 00:50:40 Yeah, as many K-pop as many F1 fans on the audience, I'm sure there are just as many K-pop fans. Um, I would ask you to all name your favorite band out loud, but it'd probably get pretty noisy in here. And look on the theme of unexpected collaborations, maybe you wouldn't have seen this coming. Right? Disney and K-pop Disney and Blackpink. Um very very big big names in their own respective industries. But it's about capitalizing on that unexpectedness and Well, we're living in a world that's become super formulaic, right? We need to defy these expectations. We need to break out of the assumptions of what you think that we would do. You know, that's typically something Disney would do. That's something typically that Blackpink would do. We want to challenge that. We want to confront that. For example, K-pop, you know but make it punk rock in the way that it's designed. So making Minnie dressed in tartans and plaids and photocopies like a zine. 00:51:38 in a way that you wouldn't typically see, Where you would see what could be offered in more of like a perfectly character art style illustration. And, so I love putting these things together that don't necessarily go together, and you wouldn't expect to live in the same room. Because when we do that, when we have these unexpected collaborations, we allow there to be space for your mind to be blown. Right, and that's what we call the product. It's really it's really good Disney magic. Yeah, it's good Disney magic. No, for sure. Now, Um you're actually wearing actually a piece from the collaboration here. And uh is this is this a favorite one? You've worked on today? Yeah, it's probably one of my favorite collaborations I've worked on. Um It was the first project I designed upon joining the company. It took about a year to get through um So yeah, I would say it's probably my favorite of them Do you have one? That was a fun one. 00:52:35 I love so much of what we do, but I will say, Mike, I know there is one that stands out. It was the runway show that we staged at Disneyland Paris, where we unveiled our collection with French fashion house Kearney. We closed out Paris Fashion Week in a truly spectacular way. The show featured some of the most recognizable models in the world, including Kylie Jenner. It was a special one. But before we play the video, I do want to leave everybody with one. 00:53:06 Today, we have been talking about new and creative ways to stay relevant in a changing world. And look, you don't need a castle to make this kind of impact. It has been great being here with you this afternoon. Thank you everybody, and we will now leave you. 00:53:38 Hello, I'm Sébastien, the founder of Coperni. We make these pieces and we really started brainstorming together. The show had this idea to stage a show at a bar.