The Homa Files

TakeAway: Can anybody keep the attention of young males today? Maybe not, but that won’t stop us from trying.

Disney’s acquisition of Marvel is just the latest case of a company going after this fickle and easily-distracted segment.

You can’t blame Disney, however, as this segment has the potential to contribute greatly to overall profitability.

That is, as long as they finish their chores.

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Excerpted from BusinessWeek, “Disney’s Marvel Deal and the Pursuit of Boys” By Tom Lowry and Ronald Grover, September 10, 2009

The U.S. has 30 million males aged 5 to 19, and capturing their attention with a TV show, movie, or magazine article is a boon to advertisers. Boys (or their parental proxies) are ravenous consumers who spend billions each year on apparel, toys, and video games.

Big Media, faced with the loss of auto and financial advertising, is charging hard at this elusive demographic.

Exhibit A: Walt Disney’s $4 billion acquisition of Marvel Entertainment and all its superheroes.

Besides attracting more boys and balancing out Disney’s big following among girls, the Mouse House believes the Marvel acquisition will bolster Disney XD, a channel it is now using to target boys.

Edit by JMZ

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Full Article
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_38/b4147066139865.htm?chan=innovation_branding_top+stories

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This entry was posted on October 16, 2009 at 7:15 am and is filed under Mktg - Positioning, Mktg - Segmentation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.