Mickey Mouse Meet Beyoncé
When would Mickey Mouse meet Beyoncé? On YouTube. Yep, these two media giants, Disney Interactive Media and YouTube (a branch of Google), are pairing up in the hopes that each company will be able to further take over the Web and mitigate their own shadowy weaknesses in the ever emerging light of technology. Combined, they will spend around $10-$15 million creating original video shorts which will be distributed on Disney.com and YouTube.
Disney Interactive acknowledges that it’s been down nearly $300 million in the past four quarters and is aware they need to drive more traffic to Disney.com. This company knows that “its own brand is not a powerful enough draw among children looking for video online; YouTube is viewed as cooler.” Therefore, they have looked to another corporate heavyweight and made nice.
While Disney understands that YouTube policy mandates users must be 13 years or older to create an account to navigate the site, Disney is hopeful that they can make money from their new video content and appeal to older children, too. Disney will go “fishing for youngsters on YouTube” and in the process showcase YouTube on its home site.
Talk about a merger. Business degree programs, anyone? James A. Pitaro, the co-president of Disney Interactive, wants to ‘bring Disney’s legacy of storytelling to a new generation of families and Disney enthusiasts on the platforms they prefer.’ So, next time you’re surfing YouTube for the latest “FAIL” video gone viral, you might stumble across Tinker Bell or Donald Duck. If you’re lucky, even that adorable little green guy, Kermit.
YouTube is happy about the deal since it has been battling it out in the legal arena with Viacom. Viacom owns Nickelodeon and has made sure that Nickelodeon has kept its videos far away from YouTube’s site. Robert Kyncl, the head of YouTube’s content partnerships, is positive about the Disney/YouTube conglomerate. ‘It’s an acknowledgement that we want to work with the best brands and, yes, we expect this partnership to attract new advertisers,’ he states.
Furthermore, YouTube recently announced they will be creating many new channels that will feature sports stars, entertainers, and comedians and their hook up with Disney reflects ideology that the Internet is an important media channel. So, make way for Swampy the toothy, smiling alligator who will be the first to be featured in an app entitled ‘Where’s My Water?’ He appears as just a cute, grinning reptile but he represents an iceberg sized technological venture that lies just below media’s surface.
