The Walt Disney Co. (DIS), in a move to take advantage of its brand, is launching a web portal in the UK, with the focus on young adults.
Explaining the reasonsing behind using a web portal as a strategy, Cindy Rose, who heads Disney's Internet arm in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said, "It doesn't make sense for us to aggregate our content with someone else's brand in a way that means all things to all people.
"There is a lot of noise and clutter in the market place. We think it makes sense to invest in our core brands," she added.
Similar to the Disney site in the U.S., the portal will include Disney Extreme Digital, which empowers children to multi-task, by offering them tools to customize their media content, enabling them to watch or listen to short video or music clips, playing games or send messages.
The initial content will feature smaller video clips for television or movie, podcasts, and also content originating from local creators. There will also be the archived video and content that people have grown to enjoy through the decades. Full-length features won't be part of the launch, but could be added later, said Rose.
Rose also said they'll eventually role the service out continentally, with their eye toward France, Germany, Italy and Spain, as their next targeted markets.
While the company will monetize the portal, Rose said there will be no advertising on the home page.
There will be a variety of ways money will be made with the site, including sponsorship links, advertising links, paid subscriptions and selling Disney products.
Many think that portals and branding are dead, but as Disney is showing through their actions, they don't believe it. I don't either. Branding will remain with us forever. This is a good move for Disney, their brand is strong, and it would be negligent not to include with their marketing strategy.
They have a built-in guarantee through their strong brand name that they can immediately differentiate from their competitors in the fragmented, noisy market. Building a strong brand is still worth the effort, as Disney is showing.
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