Popular amongst a diverse group of travelers, Disney focuses heavily on bringing in sales of tickets, packages and cruises through a large travel agent pool.
However, the behemoth brand recently announced a crackdown on digital advertising by agents.
The company has become fiercely protective of its copyright, and therefore updated its guidelines to online marketing for agents to include a raft of terms that are not to be used in any online ads. Not only does this protect Disney's copyright, but also ensures that no one can co-opt its various brands to siphon traffic away from company-supported direct marketing campaigns.
Disney shared the full document with Tnooz, and here's the scoop. Agents, and any other marketing entities using Disney names, must submit all third-party marketing materials (websites and web content) for prior approval.
- Travel professionals are limited from purchasing any keywords in paid search that contain Disney trademarks, names, service marks - or misspellings.
- Travel professionals must use Disney as a negative keyword - meaning that any Disney-related terms would not show up in its advertising.
- Travel professionals cannot purchase any Disney terms in search-based advertising.
- Landing page content is limited to only showcasing Disney Destinations content - and not any other destination-related content, such as vacation rentals.
- No usage of Disney names in the destination URL - or the display URL, which is a shift, as that means even the subdomain for the landing page cannot have Disney in it. This, of course, limits, the search juice and ensures that Disney can maintain control over the path from search to website.
- A full list of the restricted bidding/purchasing keywords also includes Disney products, such as the line-jumper FASTPASS product: Disney, Walt Disney World, Disney World, Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Downtown Disney, Disneyland, Disney California Adventure Park, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Dream, Disney Fantasy, Disney Wonder, Disney Magic, Adventures by Disney, Aulani, Disney Fairy Tale Weddings, FASTPASS, My Disney Experience, Magic Your Way and Park Hopper.
Violating these terms could lead to further copyright infringement activities - and most certainly means that travel professionals found in violation would lose permissions to sell Disney travel products.
Travel professionals will have to maintain creative alternatives to pull in Disney-bound travelers, and focus more on targeted inbound marketing tied to Disney-loving travelers' shared characteristics.
NB: Winnie and honey image courtesy Shutterstock.