Monday, April 4, 2005

More Evidence that Disney is Smart

Perhaps I should amend that.  I mean, Disney's recent failure to reach an agreement with Pixar doesn't strike me as all that bright.  But sometimes, the fine folks at Disney go out and do something brilliant.  I give you Exhibit A:

OK, the image is a bit dark, but what you're looking at is me, riding the new Buzz Lightyear ride at Disneyland.

The ride itself rocks.  Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters has been a ride at Disney World for some time, but we only just got our version in Anaheim this past month.  And it is a terrific addition to Tomorrowland.  Note the item in my hands.  A blaster.  The ride is a first-person-shooter videogame, excepting you're conveniently inside the game.  Fun?  Oh yeah.

But what's exceptionally smart about the whole venture is that photo itself.  Disney didn't make my pay for that, like they do with photos from other rides.  Instead, when you get off the ride, they have a little line of computer screens, where you are invited to pull up your photo and e-mail it to a friend.  (As you can see, it includes your score for posterity.)  And it has a link to the website promoting the ride -- where you'll soon be able to play an interactive version online.

To review, then, they've changed the whole pay-for-a-copy-of-your-photo paradigm (which probably wasn't much of a moneymaker now that everyone can snap their own digital photos with a cameraphone).  Instead, you get the photo free, and they get marketing for their new ride/interactive game.

Brilliant.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My son and I had so much fun on that ride at Disneyworld a couple of years ago!