Originally Posted By Moon Waffle I don't see how there is any way the "California" name stays. Not with the way they're changing things and basically ingoring it with the new rides & attractions.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA ^^^ugh. Had a girlfriend in college who would refer to it that way. She was more familiar with Walt Disney World, and so would talk about Walt Disneyland. Just another thing about her that bugged the crap out of me.
Originally Posted By BlueOhanaTerror I'm not sure what part of the State you're in, Jon. Northern California? There's been plenty of advertising in Southern California for DCA. There certainly was in its opening year. I have friends in Idaho, Arizona and a couple of other states on this side of the Rockies who tell me they got a lot of advertising for "the Disneyland Resort" emphasizing DCA's addition, for the first couple of years. So they spent that marketing money SOMEWHERE.
Originally Posted By jonvn After 2001, not a word about it. We got ads of characters looking over a shrub. That was it. There are no buildboads, no newspapers ads, nothing on the radio, no nothing. Might as well not exist.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer Who is "We" Jonvn, I showed MANY examples of folks in the Southern California area that has gotten many ads for DCA specific events, starting with things like the special events such as the Music series, the X-Games, Fiesta Latina events, and the ABC Primetime Preview weekends. And last time I checked, around 60% or more of the folks that attend Disneyland and DCA are from the local area, so Disney is marketing DCA to the majority of folks who visit the parks.
Originally Posted By ArchtMig >>>Ticketing, or just people going. As I have said, and Bean has backed up again, is that this expansion is to encourage continued growth of the place. That's the only thing that makes any sense. <<< I largely agree with you that this is the justification. And that the 1.2 billion would never have been earmarked had the resort overall had not shown a return on investment, especially buoyed by the success of Disneyland's 50th. But I am absolutely convinced that Disney is thrilled to have the excuse, or justification, or financial return or whatever you want to call it that allows them to save face by giving two areas of the park a complete makeover - the main entrance/sun court, and Paradise Pier. No coincidence that these are the two areas most devoid of the usual Disney design layering and immersive attention to detail. And now Disney can fix them, and they don't even have to admit how poor a job they did with those areas originally. They can just call it "growing the resort", for all I care. Just get the job done. For whatever justification they choose to explain it. Everybody wins.
Originally Posted By berol I'm outside the LA area. The most we got since the shrubs ad has been along the lines of 5 seconds of Tower of Terror during a 30 second resort ad.
Originally Posted By ChurroMonster I just heard they are renaming the place "Los Angeles Park of Anaheim".
Originally Posted By WorldDisney <<But I am absolutely convinced that Disney is thrilled to have the excuse, or justification, or financial return or whatever you want to call it that allows them to save face by giving two areas of the park a complete makeover - the main entrance/sun court, and Paradise Pier. No coincidence that these are the two areas most devoid of the usual Disney design layering and immersive attention to detail. And now Disney can fix them, and they don't even have to admit how poor a job they did with those areas originally. They can just call it "growing the resort", for all I care. Just get the job done. For whatever justification they choose to explain it. Everybody wins.>> EXACTLY!!! (I'm starting to think you are my long lost brother ArchtMig ) They can call it WHATEVER they want, DCA has been the laughingstock of Disney theme parks since it opened, if its mentioned at all. I'm sure once the old regieme was fired or quit, the new guys wanted to change this without basically coming out and said 'they 'screwed' up' and call whatever it is they need to call it because at the end of the day we are ALL getting a better park and i am grateful for that . Still can't wait for the bulldozers!!!
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <I don't see how there is any way the "California" name stays. Not with the way they're changing things and basically ingoring it with the new rides & attractions.> The area they're giving the most severe cosmetic change (the entrance area) is emphasizing the California look and theme. That's not ignoring it, it's underlining it. The area getting the next largest cosmetic change (PP) is going back in time, but not changing locale. And the expansion area is devoted to cars, something everyone associates with California, whether the movie was set there or not.
Originally Posted By jonvn And in the SF area, there was not ONE single mention of any of these special events. None.
Originally Posted By Brown Monkey >>Just another thing about her that bugged the crap out of me.<< LoL Jim! Sounds like you had a real winner there.
Originally Posted By DlandDug The original marketing of DCA was very much driven by mistakes made at Universal in Florida. When Islands of Adventure opened, there was confusion because guests thought it was part of the existing Universal Studios. Disney's marketers wanted to be certain that people would know that DCA and Disneyland were two parks in one resort. Hence, we had the Disney characters peeking "over the hedge" at the new park, and there was a great emphasis on the number "2," as in 2 Parks, 1 Resort. Some feel the problem was that they did too good a job of making everyone understand that DCA wasn't Disneyland. The accompanying campaign to introduce DCA was initially quite extensive, until people actually started reacting negatively to the place. Then they went to a more generic "Resort" campaign. Since then, any advertising for DCA has focused on specific attractions and promotions. This is true of most Disney theme parks, anyway. If they decide to change the name (which would be another unprecedented move), it will be interesting to see how the marketing is handled. Will they treat it as a whole new park to promote, or as a new and improved version? And will they phase out the old name, transitioning to the new? Or simply eliminate the old name? This would offer further clues as to what is going on within the company. I will go out on a limb here and say that if they do change the name, it will be a clean break, in an effort to essentially erase the negative public perceptions that surround Disney's California Adventure. I will also say I will be surprised if they actually change the name.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 The marketing of DLR very much followed the marketing of WDW. When EPCOT opened, it was heavily marketed here (NY gets a ton of WDW marketing - DLR did very briefly in 2001, but not before or since). Then they went back to promoting WDW as a whole. Same when MGM opened. They wanted you to know there was a new park there. A little while later, it was back to marketing WDW as a whole. Same when DAK opened.
Originally Posted By jonvn They don't market individual parks. You don't see ads for MGM DAK, or Epcot. We do see ads for Disneyland. I'm not sure if it's disneyland park or resort.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer I wouldn't call a name change unprecedented, it would be the third Disney owned park with a name change. EuroDisneyland and MGM Studios are the first two to have a name change.
Originally Posted By jeffshultz Any of the ads I've seen (really only the Year of a Million Dreams and the former Anniversary ones) have concentrated on DL - you wouldn't even know that DCA was there. Would it be too much trouble to have Tinkerbell buzz Grizzly Mountain and/or the Sun Wheel after hitting the Castle in the ads? That might do a lot to tie everything together.
