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Taking Shanghai Disneyland as an example, analyze the logic of cultural and tourism IP shaping

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2025-02-02

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Editor-in-chief | Yang Ming

Editor | Liu Kaiye

Come Source | Brand Officer Xiaogao

“The whole world is urging you to grow up, only Disney protects your inner fairytale.” In many people's hearts, Disney is a utopia in a fairy tale, bringing happiness, joy, warmth, and healing. As the first Disney theme park in mainland China, what can we learn from its success about the "methods" of shaping cultural and tourism IPs?

About Disney

The Walt Disney Company was founded in 1923. Its business covers film production, theme parks, resorts, and retail consumer goods. In 1955, Disney established its first Disney theme park in California, USA, and began its development by promoting IP monetization through offline parks. It has successively built six theme parks: Orlando Disney, Tokyo Disney, Paris Disney, Hong Kong Disney, and Shanghai Disney, achieving a global layout of Disney theme parks.

The Disney Company uses brand IP as the core to build a whole industrial chain. First, Disney uses IP as the core to create film and television works to achieve the first round of box office revenue. Then, it replicates and produces films into CDs, DVDs, and original sound albums to achieve the second round of revenue. Next, through film and television works, mature IPs are created to attract tourists to visit offline, achieving the third round of revenue from theme parks and resorts. Finally, Disney licenses IPs for various consumer products and uses the sales channels provided by parks and resorts to achieve the fourth round of IP monetization. Disney's business model features "revenue generation in rounds," and theme parks and resorts are one of the main sources of profit revenue in the entire industrial chain.

Among Disney's six theme parks, Shanghai Disney, as the first Disney theme park in mainland China, has attracted a large number of tourists since its opening in June 2016. According to statistics, from June 2016 to June 2019, fixed asset investment in Shanghai Disneyland contributed an average of 0.13% annually to Shanghai's GDP, and park consumption contributed an average of 0.21% annually to Shanghai's GDP. In 2023, Shanghai Disneyland received over 13 million visitors, with over 40.99 million people watching live entertainment performances. The willingness of Shanghai Disneyland visitors to revisit is as high as 85%. According to the third-quarter 2024 financial report, Disney's domestic park revenue fell by 6% year-on-year, but Shanghai Disney single-handedly drove overall revenue growth.

Analysis of Shanghai Disney's Cultural and Tourism IP Shaping

Why can Shanghai Disneyland become the pillar of Disney's theme park revenue, when compared to other theme parks?

This can be analyzed from three aspects: content IP and the reconstruction of local culture, the core positioning of dream-making and accurately finding emotional selling points, and reverse thinking operation and mastering UGC and fan conversion.

(1) Content IP and the Reconstruction of Local Culture

1. Characters and Stories

Shanghai Disney has a huge IP character base. In addition to Disney's original characters, there are also characters acquired through brand acquisitions, such as the Pixar brand and the Marvel brand. At the same time, as the world's first Disney park with a "Zootopia" themed area, the IP characters of Zootopia, such as Judy, Nick, and Chief Bogo, are also a major feature. After establishing a character base, Shanghai Disney builds "families" for the characters, such as the residents of Mickey Avenue and Duffy and Friends. This allows tourists to easily understand, interact with, and interact with the IP, improving recognition and acceptance. Finally, give the characters stories. Whether or not there is support from film and television works, each character will have its own story from the moment of its birth. For example, LinaBell, the first IP character launched by Shanghai Disney, is a little fox with big blue eyes, a quirky, clever, and cute little fox. Starting from its own story, and then through offline meet-and-greets and performances, allowing tourists to participate in interactive cultivation. Most importantly, the character stories incorporate universal values such as kindness, friendship, courage, struggle, love, and tolerance. Through these values, fans' recognition is obtained, thereby attracting and retaining fans.

2. Local Integration

With the foundation of content IP, Shanghai Disney has also done an excellent job in local integration. Shanghai Disney integrates traditional Chinese festivals. During the 2024 Spring Festival, the park was decorated with a dragon-themed design, incorporating elements such as dragons, auspicious clouds, and lanterns, and dressing Disney friends in new Spring Festival costumes and styles. The themed restaurants launched new Spring Festival reunion dinners, making the entire park filled with the atmosphere of the Spring Festival.

The design of Shanghai Disney Resort cleverly incorporates Chinese elements. In the iconic building of Shanghai Disney—the castle—the highest spire from top to bottom is the Chinese national flower, the peony, symbolizing prosperity and wealth; the Shanghai city flower, the Magnolia; and the classic Disney element, the princess crown; Shanghai Disney's "Twelve Friends Garden" is also designed with reference to the twelve zodiac animals of traditional Chinese culture, with Disney characters representing the twelve zodiac animals, including the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, etc.; "Disney Town" is designed with inspiration from Shanghai's Shikumen architecture.

In addition, Shanghai Disney has its own local IP. On September 29, 2021, Shanghai Disney launched a new IP character, LinaBell. Unlike in the past, LinaBell mainly relies on the Shanghai Disney park to shape its personality, adding more local flavor.

At the same time, as the leader of Shanghai's cultural and tourism industry, Shanghai Disney actively participates in Shanghai's cultural and tourism construction. In September 2022, Shanghai Disney held an International Day of Sign Languages event. On December 3 this year, Shanghai Disney Resort released "100 Commonly Used Sign Language Sentences in the Tourism Industry," contributing to the development of Shanghai's cultural and tourism industry, playing its social role, and achieving self-interest through altruism.

(2) Core Positioning of Dream-Making and Accurately Finding Emotional Selling Points

1. Host and Guest as One, Accurately Grasping the Positioning of Dream-Making

Shanghai Disney's theme is set as "Igniting the Dreams in Your Heart," aiming to create "the happiest place on earth" for tourists. It focuses on emotional value, creating a sense of atmosphere through park music, dance performances, and offline doll interactions, meeting the needs of fans, and making tourists feel as if they have entered a fairy tale world filled only with happiness.

It is worth mentioning that Shanghai Disneyland launched the "Wish You a Magical Day" themed event in September 2024. During the event, the official collected "magical moments" posted by tourists and displayed them on subway screens in cities such as Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, making the magic tangible and breaking down the "dimensional wall" between fairy tales and reality.

Shanghai Disneyland is adept at distilling individual emotional cases. During the typhoon that hit Shanghai in September this year, Shanghai Disneyland's official Xiaohongshu account published two articles in the "Wish You a Magical Day" series, namely "Disney's Drenched Princess" and "The World Will Eventually Be Bright When Holding Hands." Even with a storm, it's still a Disney princess, and with the help of Disney friends, one can withstand the storm. There are also grandparents "running wild" in Disneyland. Regardless of age, Shanghai Disneyland always accurately grasps its dream-making positioning, creating a unique Disneyland dream for each individual.

2. Spokesperson for a Better Lifestyle

Today, Disney seems to have become synonymous with "happiness," and Shanghai Disneyland strives to be a spokesperson for a better lifestyle, planning and launching different themed events on different holidays. In November 2024, Shanghai Disneyland launched the Winter Fantasy Ice and Snow Festival, featuring a magical winter parade, creating snowy moments on Mickey Avenue, and having Duffy and ShellieMay participate in the Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Shanghai Disneyland creates wonderful moments for tourists, creating a sense of ritual to meet tourists' needs for a better life.

(III) Reverse Thinking Operation and Mastering UGC and Fan Conversion

1. The Public Writes Stories, Happiness Spreads from Person to Person

Shanghai Disneyland uses reverse thinking to consolidate its fan base and make the public the writers of the story. In terms of IP image, Shanghai Disneyland's first-launched LinaBell follows a "cultivation" path, building personality through doll interaction. Many fans treat LinaBell as their "daughter," affectionately calling her "Beibei" and "Er'er." LinaBell will also give fans cute reactions such as stomping her feet and pretending to be angry, creating new meaning and stories through two-way interaction, bringing warm and healing emotional value, both originating from and feeding back to users.

As a creator of happiness, Shanghai Disneyland creates happiness in a timely manner. At the opening of Zootopia, Shanghai Disneyland placed panoramic images in Shanghai's city center subway stations, making commuters feel like they are part of Zootopia. During the Winter Fantasy Ice and Snow Festival, it collected moments witnessed by tourists during the Christmas tree lighting ceremony. After creating happiness through such measures, a large number of happy participants and sharers will be generated. Through the viral spread of social media, it will attract happy onlookers, and will also promote the transformation of happy onlookers into happy participants and sharers, ultimately achieving a virtuous cycle of "happiness spreading from person to person."

2. Enhancing Symbolic Identification, Expanding the Connotation of the Park

Shanghai Disneyland itself is just a park or resort, but if tourists propose, celebrate birthdays, or celebrate anniversaries here, it will create new symbols for Shanghai Disneyland. On their wedding anniversary, next birthday, or next anniversary, they will have the desire to return to the park. Shanghai Disneyland is good at grasping fan stories, enhancing symbolic identification, and improving the desire for repeat visits.

Cultural tourism is systematic. Once a large IP is launched, small IPs should also spread accordingly. After the completion of the entire park, Shanghai Disneyland continues to create extended IPs. In 2019, Shanghai Disneyland announced the construction of a Zootopia themed area. In 2023, Shanghai Disneyland's Zootopia area opened, becoming the world's first Disney park with a Zootopia themed area. This August, Shanghai Disneyland announced that it will build a Spider-Man themed area, continuously producing content and creating a closed loop for the cultural tourism system.

How to Learn from the "Shanghai Disney Experience"

As a successful example of "cultural tourism + IP," Shanghai Disneyland has brought great vitality to Shanghai's cultural tourism industry, and Shanghai Disneyland has also become one of the reasons why many tourists choose Shanghai. So how can we learn from the "Shanghai Disney experience" to create our own cultural tourism IP?

(I) Make Good Use of Local Cultural Resources and Unearth Vivid Stories

An excellent cultural tourism IP should make abstract things concrete, concrete things image-like, and image-like things vivid. This requires us to make good use of local cultural resources and vividly present objects. This seems simple, but it is not. Taking Changzhou Dinosaur Park as an example, its dinosaurs are still in the theme stage and have not risen to the image level, lacking memorable points, so it can only be called a tourism project rather than a cultural tourism industry. Fantawild's "Oriental Painting" series, using resources from Chinese mythology, has created a national style park and achieved certain results, but it still lacks an explosive IP, and its current revenue cannot compare with Disney. An IP is a content generation process, starting from the story source. To do a good job of IP, we need to tell vivid stories and attract audiences from stories to the scene.

(II) Focus on Interactive Extensions, Turning "Traffic" into "Retention"

In the shaping of cultural tourism IP, an "explosive point" is needed to generate traffic. This traffic can be a theme, image, story, or a combination thereof. Then, connections need to be generated through interaction. Cultural tourism IP is open, active, and constantly growing. Without interaction, it is stagnant and lifeless. Then, from point to line to surface, cultural tourism is a system. The creation of cultural tourism IP can promote the development from the core scenic area to the surrounding areas and then to the entire cultural tourism industry, just as Shanghai Disneyland Resort drives the development of the entire Chuansha area and stimulates the vitality of the entire Shanghai cultural tourism industry. Finally, it is necessary to continuously improve content, products, and services to retain tourists and turn "traffic" into "retention."

(III) Accurate and Unique Positioning, Avoiding Plagiarism

Cultural tourism IP must be unique and must be coordinated with the overall cultural tourism ecosystem. The idea that "Disney is so good, so let's build a Disney to drive development" is unacceptable. Shanghai is a major window connecting with the world economy. Its economic vitality, policy support, capital investment, and park location cannot be simply copied. Local cultural tourism IP should be combined with the local cultural tourism ecosystem. For example, Xi'an has the Terracotta Army culture and is an ancient capital of thirteen dynasties, while Changsha has rich red culture and Tongguan Kiln culture. These are the local cultural tourism ecological resources, and each of us creative people needs to propose solutions for a better life based on local resources, avoiding plagiarism.

Some say that Disney's greatest success lies in the fact that even if you know it's Disney's marketing plan, you will still be moved time and time again, and you will still be willing to pay for it time and time again. We look forward to the future, when we can also create heartwarming stories and cultural tourism IPs that people yearn for.

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