UEFA Champions League and the theme parks
There isn’t any other sport that unites Europe as much as soccer (or football as it is called here). So sponsoring a major pan-european soccer event or advertising in connection with it is a sure way to get access to some of the most coveted potential potential customers and guests. This year the league of the top clubs of Europe, the UEFA Champions League, celebrates “50 years of champions”. Since May 13 the according “Champions Festival” is taking place for fans in Paris and now, tonight, the anniversary season finally comes to the grand finale with the finale match of the two top teams - at the “Stade de France” in Paris, otherwise also known as the backyard of the Disneyland Resort Paris.
Sounds just like another boring soccer report with a rather constructed Disney reference? Well, not really - because the reason I wanted to publish the story here is actually what happened and what did not happen and how Disney is NOT involved…I am talking about DLRP not making any use of this opportunity. While certainly guests staying in the resort tonight will have numerous opportunities to watch the match on TV if they should be interested, that is it as how much Disney is involved and in which way they try to utilize this sporting event for their own purpose.
Still normally this wouldn’t be worth a post here - if there wouldn’t be the Europa Park. You know, that theme park in Rust, Germany, which in the past years has constructed 3 hotels and a tipi-village, all of which are usually booked to capacity months in advance? You know, that park which is adding attraction over attraction nearly every year? You know, that resort which managed to convince Germans that while Disney is too expensive and only for children, a prolonged weekend in the Europa Park Resort is just as magical but is fun not only for children but also for teenagers and adults plus much more affordable? You know, that park which pops up on TV nearly every week in Germany?
Well THAT park is going to pop up on TV-screens all over Europe tonight as it is producing the opening ceremony of the soccer match! Here a snippet from their Europe-wide press release:
Under the direction of choreographer Enno-Ilka Uhde, Europa-Park presents a spectacular performance with a cast of over 250, including prize-winning artists, dancers, 100 youngsters from the Paris suburb St. Denis and 100 firefighters.
[...]
The show with the promising title “Passage to the 50th” focusses on 50 years of UEFA Champions League. Millions of television viewers and 80,000 football fans in the “Stade de France” experience an impressively staged six-minutes show performance, during which the pitch is transformed into an outlandishly sized stage and the “Stade de France” into an exuberant French birthday party.
After an esthetical and at the same time dynamical opening, a symbolical birthday party in the French national colours blue white and red is celebrated in honour of 50 years of UEFA. Then, the European heroes of football from the past 50 years will be honoured: images of Platini, Beckenbauer, Di Stefano, Charlton, Maldini and Cruyff are lifted in the air on oversized banners by a 3D flight artist. The technical implementation of this element is a world novelty. The dates on a 100 metre long banner remind the audience of the final matches that have taken place from 1956 until today. Upon the final beat of the drum, the two oversized team flages of Arsenal London and FC Barcelona are lifted above the field.
With this vanguard spectacle, Europa-Park is once more redefining international standards for prominent sporting events and thus once again proving that Germany’s biggest theme park has excellent credentials in staging unique shows. Europa-Park’s motto is to provide an absolutely top-notch performance and “entertainment at its best”.
As a German I just have to wonder: after they managed to take control of the German market and minimize the Disneyland Resort Paris here, are they now going after the next European markets? Can we expect more advertising for the Europa Park Resort outside its traditional core markets? I sure don’t know, but the marketing department of DLRP should better follow this closely, before it is too late and their other markets in Europe start to mirror the devestating German market…
May 17th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Very interesting, Dirk. I wasn’t aware of how much EP is aggressively marketing itself these days. And, to do an event like the Champions Cup Final, which is clearly a Europe-wide audience, is an absolute cast-iron assurance they are after a wider market at the park. If this isn’t the loudest wake-up call for Disney marketing, I don’t know what is. Thanks for posting.
May 17th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Hi Dirk,
Hope you are keeping well.
This article is excellent for Europa Park, and a major embarassment to Disney Paris.
It reminds me of when they opened the second park on 16 March 2002 (which was the same date as the 20th Anniversary showing of ET by Speilberg).
They thought that the entire cast of Armageddon would be available for the opening, by ringing their agents only TWO weeks before the actual event.
Of course, they weren’t, so we got French stars instead that no-one knew outside of France. Oh, and Roger Moore!!
A Marketing Division that should seriously review it’s policy if it wants DLRP to remain financially viable.
It really is time for them to wake up!!
All the best to you, and thanks for this post.