Disneyland Cars Land launch on Expedia

+39%

Revenue after the campaign

20%+

Increase in ticket sales

$1.1B

Expansion of Disney California Adventure

Omma

Award finalist for the Expedia ad unit

My role

Associate Creative Director. Creative direction, art direction, strategy, and rich media

Agency

True North Agency

Partners

Disneyland Resort, Pixar, and Expedia

Scope

Programmatic awareness, co-branded site takeovers, responsive UX

01 — The problem

Not just a park. A resort.

Disneyland still had awareness challenges. The team wanted people to see it as a full resort, two parks and three hotels, and a multi-day family destination rather than a day trip. When Disney invested $1.1 billion to add Cars Land to California Adventure, it partnered with us and Expedia on a major online launch.

It was also a big moment for Disney’s vertical integration: the largest presence of a recently acquired property, Pixar, in any of its parks.

02 — The idea

Race across the booking widget.

The booking widget at the center of Expedia’s homepage gets the most eyeballs on the page, so that’s where we wanted to be, and Expedia doesn’t usually let anyone touch it. I partnered with Expedia’s marketing team to secure homepage and UI access for a takeover, and with Pixar’s team to keep the characters true to their animation standards.

The result: Lightning McQueen racing across Expedia’s homepage and interacting with the booking widget.

The Cars Land takeover on Orbitz — The takeover, extended to Orbitz

03 — Results

→Disneyland Resort ticket sales up more than 20%

→Revenue up 39%

→The Expedia ad unit was named an Omma Award finalist

→Early results expanded the campaign to Orbitz

Credits

True North Agency · Expedia · Pixar