Rob, you just made a Disney video.
What are you going to do now?
I'm going to... make another video about Disney World.
Did you know that the famous "I'm going to Disney World" marketing campaigns exists thanks
to Michael Eisner's wife, Jane, and a couple of famous pilots.
Jeana Yeager, no relation to Chuck, and Dick Rutan were two famous aviators most well known
for completing a flight around the world without stopping and without refueling.
The flight itself took nine days and they spanned over 24,000 miles.
And here I thought a flight to California was going to be bad.
They were making news for their historic flight and it just so happened that a month later
Michael Eisner would be throwing a party in Disneyland with George Lucas and a number
of other celebrities to celebrate the opening of Star Tours.
Now of course them, being recent celebrities due to their historic flight, they were invited
to the party as well.
Over the course of the night everybody was chitchatting and making small talk and at
one point Jane Eisner, Michael Eisner's wife, turned to the pilots and asked them a question.
She asked them "Now that you've flown around the world and done the most adventurous thing
imaginable, what are you going to do next?"
And with complete sincerity, they both answered that they were going to Disneyland.
Jane loved that answer, and as soon as she had a free moment she pulled Michael Eisner
aside and she told him about the exchange and she mentioned that it would be an amazing
marketing campaign for the parks.
Michael loved the idea.
In fact he loved it so much that the very next day he called Tom Elrod, Disney World's
chief of marketing, and told him about it.
The Super Bowl was only two weeks away and Eisner wanted to jump on this idea as soon as possible.
So Elrod reached out to the NFL and worked out appearance deals with athletes from both
teams, in the event that one or the other would win, in order to make this commercial happen.
And happen it did.
Two weeks later the Broncos were beaten by the New York Giants and a camera crew waiting
on the side of the field rushed out to quarterback Phil Simms and asked him "Phil Simms, you've
won the Super Bowl, what are you going to do next?"
Phil only had to record two takes.
In one take he screamed "I'm going to Disney World!" and in the second take he recorded
"I'm going to Disneyland!"
That way they would have a commercial for the east Coast audiences and the west coast
audiences.
Now here's where the campaign gets really interesting.
You see, you have to remember this was the late 1980's.
Technology then wasn't the same as it is today.
Today you could record something, edit it on your laptop, and have it on the internet
within an hour, but back then the turnaround was much longer.
However in record setting time the NFL had footage sent over to Disney within an hour
of the game finishing, and 12 hours after the end of the Super Bowl a commercial was
cut and aired the next morning on Good Morning America.
Airing a commercial less than 12 hours after it had been recorded was so unorthodox that
within the advertising community the news of the commercial was almost as big of news
as the Super Bowl was.
Even though he said he was going to both, ultimately Phil Simms was flown out to Disneyland
with his family the very next day where he spent it enjoying rides and making appearances.
All in all it was said that he earned $75,000 for that day along with the two lines that
he recorded at the end of the Super Bowl.
Now on it's own, this would be the story of a fairly successful marketing campaign.
It generated some news, everyone watched it, it was during a popular event; that was great.
However we all know that that's not where it stopped.
The "What's Next?" campaign as Disney called it became a cultural phenomenon.
It has been nearly 30 years and it is still something that athletic winners across the
country and across the world scream when they've won.
It's every company's dream to have a campaign grow like this, and Disney has Jane Eisner
to thank for it!
If you want to learn about some of the ideas of Jane's husband, Michael Eisner, you can
check out my "Did You Know Disney" on architecture and Disney's America, the Disney theme park
that never was.
I want to thank you all for watching.
Whatever you're doing this week make the most of it because it makes it that much better,
and I hope to see you all next time for the next Did You Know Disney.
Bye everybody!