.jpg)
Everything goes through Facebook these days. Companies use it to network, advertising agencies promote their wares, and people play games and scroll through pictures of their friends. With everything attached to Facebook now, it’s hard to remember the early days of the site, back when it was only designed for students.
Those days are long past, and now Facebook routinely performs one of its primary services as a marketing tool. Companies create pages for their products of which people can become fans; sometimes agencies also put together groups where fans come together and discuss their favorite show, clothing line, etc.
It comes as no surprise that the Walt Disney Corporation just took Facebook marketing to the next step. The Seattle Times breaks the news of a new Facebook application called Disney Tickets Together.
Disney Tickets Together allows users to buy tickets to “Toy Story 3” in advance without ever having to leave the Facebook web site. In addition, it helps those who already bought tickets to prompt their friends into doing so as well.
Disney teamed up with Fandango and other ticket-buying web sites to launch the program, and works with most movie theaters across North America. So far “Toy Story 3” is the only movie users can buy tickets for with the application, but according to Oliver Luckett, senior VP of DigiSynd, the Disney subsidiary that controls its social networking efforts, more will come if the program is a success. “The whole idea is that no friend gets left behind,” says Luckett of Disney Tickets Together.
I understand the importance of social networking sites in modern media marketing. But I’m having a difficult time stomaching Disney Tickets Together. I guess I just don’t get its importance to the user; “no friend gets left behind”? If someone really wants to see “Toy Story 3” with their friends, they definitely don’t require a Facebook application to make it happen.
I can guess exactly how DTT works. It will likely function in the same way as most “suggest to a friend” applications on Facebook. Once a person signs up for an app, plays a game, takes a quiz, or in this case, buys a movie ticket, a window in Facebook pops up. The window displays the user’s entire friends list, with boxes next to their names all checked.
The user can’t do anything else on Facebook until they get rid of the window, and in this case the easiest and quickest option to do so is to click a provided “suggest to friends” button.
To get out of the window without spamming their entire friends list users usually must do one of two things: painstakingly uncheck the boxes beside every friend’s name, or search for the smaller, subdued box (which only appears in some cases) saying that you’d like to skip this step. Often people send out these notifications/suggestions to their friends lists of 100 people or more without really realizing it, because doing so is the easiest way to get the window closed.
If DTT doesn’t end up working this way, then fantastic, because that means Disney will be one of the first to take steps away from Facebook’s annoying tendency to encourage/trick its users to constantly barrage the people on their friends lists with notifications and requests related to everything everyone does on the site.
But I have a sinking feeling that DTT will follow that mold. When/if that happens, I won’t be able to help my annoyance with Disney. “Toy Story 3” already has enough promotion; it’s not like anyone who cares doesn’t know that it comes out tomorrow.
I have to wonder if this application might not be more hurtful to Disney in the long run. When I get spammed by friends “suggesting” I try out a new product or become a fan of something, my irritation at that damages my impression of whatever’s being shilled. I’m certainly not encouraged to spend money on whatever it is. Hopefully in the case of Disney Tickets Together, the Mouse Company will tone down Facebook’s penchant for over-promotion.
Related Articles:
Do You Put Pictures of Your Baby on Facebook?
Tangled: Hand Drawn vs. Computer Animation
Unlock Your Favorite Films with Disney KeyChest
*(This image by Andrew Feinberg is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
