As Walt Disney Co. continues to expand globally, the entertainment empire is targeting children yet to be born in Africa and Indonesia as its next generation of satisfied customers.
The studio has been making big gains in Asia, Latin America and other developing markets, and Andy Bird, who as chairman of Walt Disney International is in charge of everything the corporation does outside of America, has a plan to keep that momentum going for decades to come.
“I’m trying to map a strategy for the company which may be over 20 years into the future,” he said. “We look at generational effect by thinking in terms of today’s children becoming parents themselves.”
Building global awareness and affection, especially in emerging markets, is part of his ongoing work to keep the Disney name synonymous with family entertainment.
The strategy for now focuses mostly on China, where a new Disney theme park and resort is set to open in Shanghai in the spring, and India, where Disney-branded Bollywood films are now being produced. The two countries are experiencing the greatest growth of middle-class disposable income.
But Bird is also looking into other markets and sees big opportunities in Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia and one that continues to expand. Disney isn’t building a theme park there just yet, but has an office in Jakarta overseeing a fast-growing business in TV, theatrical productions and consumer products.
“There are 250 million people in Indonesia and an emerging middle class,” Bird said. “The whole area is fascinating and 74 percent of the population in Southeast Asia is under 34.”
He thinks that region offers trade opportunities for other L.A.-based businesses, not just Disney and other giants.
“Businesses here in L.A. need to maybe start thinking of themselves not on the West Coast of America but on the east coast of the Pacific Rim,” he said.
Hill and dale
Speaking at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills recently after giving a talk there to the British American Business Council, Bird, an Englishman, explained that growing Disney’s international footprint includes work in even the most undeveloped areas.
Working with nonprofit organizations, he said Disney has recently hosted humble film screenings in remote African villages, projecting studio films on bed sheets.
“We’re bringing cinema to places that have never seen movies before,” said Bird, sounding keen to win new converts to the Disney brand even in the most far-flung places on the planet.
Of course, Bird, who reports to Disney Chairman-Chief Executive Robert Iger and is tasked with overseeing growth opportunities for the company outside the United States, has used more traditional methods to grow Disney’s operations in both developed and emerging markets.
During his tenure, the entertainment empire has launched free-to-air Disney channels in Russia, Turkey and Spain; reached 250 million consumers in India by acquiring one of that country’s premier media and entertainment companies, UTV; and set up Japan’s first foreign-owned channel targeting women and families, Dlife.
“Whether we’re showing films in remote parts of African or considering approaches for a new Disneyland theme park somewhere, it’s all part of the mission to take our family entertainment global,” Bird said.
He oversees Disney offices around the world, serving all of the company’s business lines –including retail stores, TV channels and a cruise line – and said he spends more time globetrotting than he does at his Burbank office. He said it’s important that those foreign offices all have a unique philosophy representing their countries rather than just the corporate brand.
“You need to integrate yourself into the social fabric of each place,” he said. “Walt was a great traveler, too. He took a lot of stories from European fairy tales. Although we’re an American company, we have a global outlook. We’re in the export business, showing our products right around the world.”
Bird’s efforts appear to be working, as Disney’s revenue in Asia, Latin America and other developing regions has been growing fast. In the company’s most recent fiscal year, which ended in September, Disney brought in $3.9 billion in revenue in the Asia Pacific region, an increase of 31 percent over 2012, when revenue from the region was just shy of $3 billion. In Latin America and other developing markets, revenue climbed 24 percent over that period.
Those are big growth numbers compared with Disney’s operations in the United States and Canada, which grew about 16 percent from 2012 to 2014, and in Europe, which were up just 5 percent over that period.
