Icons and Idols How ‘The American Idol Experience’ Brings Pop Culture to Walt Disney World
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12 February 2009 week 07 Icons and Idols How ‘The American Idol Experience’ brings pop culture to Walt Disney World Germany France Commercial TV is competent M6 and RTL Radio interview in information Nicolas Sarkozy Australia The Netherlands FremantleMedia Australia No celebrity will be safe from having a perfect storm De TV Kantine week 0 COVER: Carrie Underwood, winner of American Idol season four and Mickey Mouse in front of ‘The American Idol Experience’ 2 week 07 the RTL Group intranet “Making dreams come true” American Idol comes to Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. Backstage talked to Keith Hindle, about turning a TV show into an attraction. North America - 12 February 2009 ‘The American Idol Experience’, which celebra- tes its grand opening on 14 February, was developed by Walt Disney Imagineering in conjunction with FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) and 19 TV Ltd. It is based on FremantleMedia North America’s smash-hit television show American Idol and is designed to immerse park guests in the authentic feel of a live television production. Each show takes place in a 1,000-seat, indoor theater at Disney’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park that features the twirling neon signs and a multi-layered backdrop inspired by the actual American Idol set in California. Building on its hallmark of attention to detail, Walt Disney Imagineering worked with the Hollywood set designer who designed the actual TV show set for American Idol. The newly-designed venue is Ryan Seacrest at American Idol Experience the most technologically advanced theatre at Then, audience members vote for their favorite Walt Disney World Resort. Designed to reflect performance using the armrest touchpads, with the best and brightest elements of the TV show, their votes tallied to determine the top singer. ‘The American Idol Experience’ includes an Performers with the highest votes during the audition process open to Disney’s Hollywood preliminary shows will return for a high-energy, Studios guests 14 and older. These guests per- grand finale show that same evening. After their form live in front of a Disney’s Hollywood encore performances, the big moment arrives. Studios Casting Director for the opportunity to It’s a super-charged, eye-popping scene as be cast in one of the preliminary theme park audience votes are tallied, the other performers shows that same day. If shown to have that drop off, music builds and the spotlight shines special ‘star quality’ during the multi-step audi- down, amid a blizzard of confetti, on the day’s tion process, it’s on to performance training, top singer. And every member of the audience hair and make-up. Then, the lights come up can take a bow, too, because they had a role in and it’s show-time for the singers as they try to deciding that day’s star. impress an audience of theme park guests, plus a panel of three expert judges. Prior to the grand opening, Backstage had the opportunity to interview Keith Hindle, Executive Park guests will be able to enjoy the perfor- Vice President Licensing North America at mances just like at a live television taping. FremantleMedia Enterprises. 3 week 07 the RTL Group intranet Will ‘The American Idol Experience’ be integrated into the audition process of the actual show? Yes – the key to doing this deal was fin- ding a connection to the TV show which made it a strong proposition for Disney, and yet didn’t compromise in any way the integrity of the audition process for the TV show itself. The result is that the ulti- mate winner of each day’s performance will get a Dream Ticket, which gives them front-of-the-line access to any future Idol TV show audition – meaning they will definitely get an audition, they will not have to wait in line, and – in what really Contestant at ‘The American Idol Experience’ resonated for Disney – any parent or friend It’s quite unusual to see a talent show tur- who is too old to enter the TV show can win a ning into a theme park attraction. How did it Dream Ticket for their children to use in the all start? future. It was a long process, over two years of discus- sions and negotiations. It started with our stra- What part did FremantleMedia Enterprises tegy of making Idol a year-round brand, and we play in developing the attraction? approached Disney because for America’s In our initial approach to Disney we had an number one show we should work with the ex-Disney designer prepare professional number one theme park, and because of the mock-ups of the attraction. This has of course close branding fit – both brands make dreams been very much changed since then by the come true. experts at Disney, but it showed them we were serious. Since then it has been a daily dialogue What’s the challenge of adapting the TV to ensure we are as true to the TV experience show to an attraction? and the Idol brand as we can. Several! Making it true to the TV show expe- rience, yet also working with the parameters of Are any other FremantleMedia formats lined a successful park show, such as keeping it up to follow American Idol’s example? short and running multiple shows per day. We Some certainly could in my view, but space in a learned a lot from our ongoing successful Price major theme park is even rarer than a prime- Is Right live theatre show in Las Vegas, where time slot. We will take this one show at a time. we use a large amount of video footage from the actual TV show in the live show, which gives it authenticity and excitement and helps keep the pace fast. Also cas- ting – visitors to the park can actually per- form in the Disney show, so we need a very effective process of selecting them in order to know all six to seven shows per day will be entertaining. What is the main advantage of ‘The American Idol Experience’ compared to established attractions? This ability to actually take part is the key and largely unique, and also that it is a brand parents enjoy with their children, not just something for the kids or a roller coaster for the adults. Of course the enormous brand recognition through the TV show helps: Idol is watched by 30 mil- lion Americans twice a week for four months of the year, and distributed in over 100 countries worldwide. Keith Hindle, Executive Vice President Licensing North America 4 week 07 the RTL Group intranet Commercial TV is a competent source of information Private channels have proven their expertise in the information sector. They are particularly good at meeting the needs of young demogra- phics. Germany - 9 February 2009 28.5 per cent of the 14- to 29-year-olds sur- veyed indicated that RTL Television has espe- cially attractive information programming, for Peter Kloeppel example news, documentaries and info shows. RTL Television also leads the pack when it comes to engaging entertainment program- ming such as shows, series and movies. The survey also shows the extent to which a vie- wer’s level of education influences their choice of channel: 9.9 per cent of respondents with a university entrance certificate felt well-informed by RTL Television (ProSieben: 8.7 per cent), whereas 24.3 per cent (30.3 per cent) of res- pondents with this comparatively higher level of education turn to the commercial channels for entertainment. By contrast, around 30 per cent of participants with a tenth-grade education indicated RTL Television is their channel of choice for both information and entertainment. The survey was carried out from 12 to 16 January 2009 by Link Institut, market and social researchers based in Frankfurt on behalf of the German marketing publication Horizont. The results were published in the Horizont Extra issue on 5 February. 5 week 07 the RTL Group intranet Learning from one another means learning with each other As part of the Com.mit Awards call for entries, Peter Kloeppel and Minister of State Maria Böhmer visited a Berlin school. Rainer Haake, Deputy Head Teacher, Minister of State Maria Böhmer and Peter Kloeppel Germany - 11 February 2009 In January 2009, RTL Television announ- ced its 2nd Com.mit Award for Integration. The media prize is given out to grammar-school students who success- fully deal with the topics of immigration and integration using the media of film. RTL Television’s chief editor Peter Kloeppel joined the initiative’s patron, Minister of State Maria Böhmer, on a visit to the Robert-Jungk Grammar School in Berlin-Wilmersdorf on 9 February, to talk to 30 teens about their own experiences with immigration and integration. These 12th and 13th-year students encounter the issue of integration on a daily basis: the Peter Kloeppel and Maria Böhmer 800 teens at their school, which has Minister of State Maria Böhmer gave positive “European Classrooms” as its motto, have feedback after the discussion round: “The stu- 28 different nationalities. About 45 per cent of dents at the Robert-Jungk Grammar School them come from families with an immigrant provide us with a very good example of how background. Kloeppel was primarily interested immigration can mean an opportunity for our in the students’ own experiences with the country. Integration increases understanding issue. between people and cultures. It is extremely important to focus on the manifold opportuni- “The teens at this school were very open, well- ties that integration opens up for a society.