Across the globe, whether it’s a park, a cruise, an island, or more, everyone is invited to join in the fun and storytelling of Disney Experiences.
As Disney Experiences continues making meaningful strides with the growing multicultural audiences of the future, it created a campaign aimed at speaking authentically to Black consumers.
The Disney Experiences internal agency, Yellow Shoes, partnered with Cashmere — an external agency focused on creating work centered on culture — to create a body of work that would help strengthen its brand impact. Thus, the “We Came to Play” campaign, which won a Multicultural Excellence Award from the Association of National Advertisers in 2024, was born.
‘An Intentional Invitation’
The campaign is “an intentional invitation to Black guests,” Dawnyell Bowen, Director of Planning at Yellow Shoes who oversaw the making of “We Came to Play,” said.
“The guest is at the center of everything we do” at Disney, Bowen noted, so the team sought to create a campaign that would feel authentic to Black guests.
“The campaign invites them to bring their whole selves to PLAY authentically, with swagger, and confidence,” Bowen said. “By highlighting stories of relevance and belonging, we effectively opened up the Disney magic.”
The three ads bring the whole family to a Disney experience — with two of the spots featuring three generations of family.
More broadly, by focusing the campaign on multigenerational families, the team was able “to showcase that magic was open for both the young and the young at heart within our Disney experiences. There is something special and memorable for everyone,” according to Bowen.
Variety of Experiences to Choose From
While the TV spots each highlight a different family, they also focus on a different member at various Disney experiences — a young boy at Disneyland Resort, a tween girl at Walt Disney World Resort, and a proud father on a Disney Cruise.
“Each family member was able to bring a personal perspective that allowed the audience to see, feel, and hear the magic that awaits them across our Disney experiences,” Bowen explained.
What that meant was thematically connecting brands and experiences unique to each location, ensuring families could authentically see themselves and their loved ones partaking in the many stories, experiences, and products all while creating lifelong memories across each of the brands.
“Disneyland is the Happiest Place on Earth, hence the voice of a precocious little boy imagining his family as heroes in the park,” Bowen said. Therefore, the spot features popular Super Heroes seen in movie theaters and on Disney+, like Captain America, that can be embraced at Disneyland.
“Walt Disney World is all about magic,” Bowen continued, “It’s a larger park that needs multiple days to navigate and it’s a little more sophisticated, so we chose the voice of a tween girl, coming into her own.”
The message focused on Disney Cruise Line highlighted that Disney experiences aren’t just for kids, but that there’s plenty for adults to enjoy as well.
“You are constantly catered to, so this one came to life through the voice of an ‘it’ dad, proudly showing his family and his beautiful wife a great vacation,” Bowen concluded.
The mother is able to relax on a hammock on the beach while her husband plays with the kids in the sand, and both parents are seen enjoying a relaxing spa time aboard the ship.
Recognized Work
Through its clever use of different perspectives to highlight just a few of the many ways that guests can enjoy a Disney experience, the “We Came to Play” campaign showcased creativity that was recognized within the industry.
At the Association of National Advertisers’ 2024 Multicultural Excellence Awards, “We Came to Play” walked away with the Grand Prize in the African American category.
“It’s a great honor to see a campaign like this being celebrated,” Bowen said. “To be awarded by our peers punctuates the importance of demonstrating how inclusivity can have meaningful creative and business impact.”
When asked what she hopes viewers of these ads will come away feeling, Bowen simply stated that “we hope they’ll see all Disney experiences as inclusive and welcoming.”