Case Study - Disney's " High School Musical 2"

Hitting the ‘High' notes again

Bringing "High School Musical 2" to tweens

The beginning
Disney started paving its way to market "High School Musical 2" way back in February 2007. It hosted a "tee-off" event involving all the different lines of business like merchandize, CDs, DVDs, to get all parties excited about the property as well as coordinate launch and product release plans in the different markets.

A month later, it started involving its affiliates like StarHub Digital TV in Singapore and Astro in Malaysia to integrate its marketing plans.

Partnerships join in the party
Critical to the success of the campaign were the involvement of its affiliates StarHub and Astro who it felt believed in the product and provided a lot of support on TV and also on mobile (for Singapore); and local voice talents (for Malaysia).

In Singapore, Nokia came out with the pre-paid mobile phone pack that was themed "High School Musical 2" and StarHub Gee came out with limited edition pre-paid cards.  It also worked with its PR agency Upstream Asia and its event agencies in Singapore and Malaysia to execute the multi-pronged-campaign.

In the thick of things
The objective of the campaign was to build momentum that "High School Musical" generated and ensure a bigger launch for its sequel through multiple touch points for its ‘tween' audience to experience "High School Musical 2".

The marketing campaign officially kicked off in June 2007 and went on for about three months where it held preview events and press conferences together with an interschool dance competition, "My School Rocks", in Singapore and Malaysia. It culminated with the "High School Musical 2" premiere on Disney Channel on 9 September 2007.

It focused on three key components Music, Language and Experience - for the target group to feel passionate and identify with the "High School Musical" brand.

For music, it localised songs from the movie to resonate more with the local audiences. In Singapore it invited Show Luo from Taiwan to sing "Bet on It,"; in Malaysia, it had Malaysian Idol Jaclyn Victor and ‘Akademi Fantasia' winner Vince Chong sing a duet "You are the Music in Me" in both English and Bahasa Malaysia and in the Philippines it invited Nikki Gil to sing another theme song "Gotta Go My Own Way".

As for language localisation, it premiered the movie in Malaysia on dual language option which is a first for Disney. And finally for experiencing the brand, it was achieved through its "My School Rocks" competition.

The campaign also entered various media platforms to reach to their publics, there were executions on the Disney Channel, print, radio, outdoor as well as retail promotions. It also experimented with digital media such as Disney Mobile Xtra on StarHub Mobile and MSN platforms.

The aftermath
The media value it secured was over USD $1 million and the movie dominated the kids demographic as the highest rated telecast among pay-TV kids at premiere in the metered markets of Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. The campaign also helped catapult its merchandise sales - the soundtrack to Platinum status in Singapore and the Philippines; and Gold in Malaysia and Indonesia. It also engaged with thousands of kids who participated in its "My School Rocks" event. In Malaysia alone where auditions took place in four cities, the online voting site saw over 180,000 hits.

BOX OUT

Show me the numbers....

- "High School Musical" has been watched by over 250 million people worldwide.
- Besides the TV ratings performance, there are the 15 million CD soundtracks and 15million DVDs of "High School Musical" and "High School Musical 2" that have been sold worldwide.
- The success of the franchise saw the spin-off of "High School Musical: The Ice Tour" and following the sequel comes the "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" which is screening in cinemas now.