Visitors to the newly updated Spaceship Earth ride at Epcot might experience the ride and miss the show.
Or they might experience the 26-year-old ride with a few new updates
and spins, and catch the bevy of interactive games in the post-show
area. And still, they might neither notice nor care about the real
significance of the deal behind them, a pact that ties Walt Disney World and the global technology company Siemens AG with the kind of
multifaceted partnership that illustrates how Disney World sells itself
not just as a theme park but also as a marketing venue for all sorts of
companies.
Siemens is a German company that generated about 68.6 billion euros (about $102
billion in today's U.S. currency) in sales last year making
medical-device, power-grid, information-communication, transportation
and automation and control systems, and has more than 6,000 employees
in Florida, including those at the company's power headquarters on
Alafaya Trail.
Though the company makes almost nothing that the average Disney World
visitor might want to buy, Siemens' $100 million, 12-year agreement
with Disney World in 2005 gives it naming sponsorship of Epcot's most
iconic structure and ride, along with various other business
arrangements. Under a new sign reading, "Spaceship Earth Presented by
Siemens," the ride and its post-show gauntlet of games have been rolled
out one a time, in soft openings during the past few weeks.
Grand-opening festivities for everything are set for next Tuesday.
"We felt we needed to have a brand that was well-known in the United
States, both for our business-to-business customers and for the same
reasons you would brand anything for a consumer, to give them the sense
that you are familiar," said Jack Bergen, Siemens' corporate senior
vice president for corporate affairs and marketing.
It's one reason that Epcot in particular was designed to be a showcase
of corporate sponsors. Siemens replaces AT&T in sponsoring
Spaceship Earth. Other major sponsors at Epcot include General Motors and Nestle. Smaller partnerships recently were announced with Waste Management and a nonprofit coalition of several companies including State Farm
insurance. Disney also is not afraid to package deals that include
product placements in movies or TV shows, or arrangements with other
Disney properties, said Lawrence Aldridge, senior vice president for
corporate alliances at the Walt Disney Company.
Siemens had considered other brand-identification options, such as buying naming rights to a stadium or a bowl game.
"The big challenge of the marketplace now is the clutter that is out
there, with naming rights and all, you're seeing it everywhere now,"
Aldridge said. "Employers are looking for more ways to connect with
customers."
Still, Disney remains highly sensitive about its image and therefore
cautious about picking marketing partners, or deciding how it will
allow them to operate, he added. "One thing we're not going to do is
ruin the magic," Aldridge insisted. "We're not talking about NASCAR
here. You're not going to see stickers down Main Street or anything."
On the Spaceship Earth ride, visitors might notice just a few new show
scenes, lighting, costumes and set decorations and a new narrator,
Academy Award-winning actress Judi Dench. The ride vehicle includes an interactive feature that quizzes visitors on such things as their hometown.
Once they get off the ride, visitors encounter Siemens' real show,
which begins as they enter a high-ceilinged parlor and watch as their
pictures (taken on the ride) appear on a large globe in the center,
then slide over the globe to their hometowns, where they shrink into
pinpoints of light that tally who came from where on any given day.
The post show also features several areas of educational high-tech
games highlighting some of Siemens' technologies, including Inner
Vision for medical technologies; Power City, for energy distribution;
and Super Driver for transportation. Along the way, visitors also
encounter a few displays showing off some of Siemens' other programs,
including its "Generation 21" science-education awards. Disney planners
were impressed enough with the games that they took the unusual step of
opening entrances directly into the post-show area, so that visitors
can skip the ride and get right into the techno-games, if they prefer.
"I believe that with this ride we see the beginning of the post show as
an attraction," said Jim MacPhee, Disney World vice president for
Epcot. "It's pretty phenomenal."
Spaceship Earth also provides Siemens with a large VIP lounge that the
company outfitted with more of its technologies, to show off to
customers or to reward top employees 365 days a year.
Long term, the ride and the post-show represent a small portion of the
commitments Disney and Siemens have made to one another. The two intend
to work together to adapt and develop Siemens' power, communications,
transportation, waste-management and other technologies to Disney
World's in running a business with 60,000 employees, 22 resort hotels
and more than 100,000 daily visitors.
"We could use this platform, that would be a living showcase of how we
can make a city work or a place like Disney work," Bergen said.