In the summer of 2020, timed to International Friendship Day, Disney launched Mickey & Friends Stay True, a global franchise campaign celebrating the sentiment of staying true to your friends, staying true to your community, and staying true to yourself – just like the Sensational 6, who have been friends for 90+ years.
For the holidays, we recognized that traditions looked much different in 2020, so we launched Mickey & Friends(giving), a one-day, cross-country pizza party that encouraged friends to come together virtually and locally, for an epic Friendsgiving inspired by Disney’s Mickey & Friends.
In a holiday season when friends were missing each other more than ever, we created a way for people to connect and come together around food with six of Disney’s most iconic characters.
To get the word out, we partnered with superstar Chef Roy Choi to curate menus at five of the hottest pizzerias in the US: Jon & Vinny’s in Los Angeles, Roberta’s in New York, Pizzeria Beddia in Philadelphia, Homeslice Pizza in Austin, and Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. For one day only, each restaurant offered a special menu item inspired by one of the six Mickey & Friends characters. The pizzas were made available for pickup and local delivery, and each came in a collectible – and Instagram-worthy – pizza box with limited edition stickers.
To bring the activation to life on social, we created bespoke video, photo, and interactive social content that rolled out across our own Instagram, as well as our partner chefs and pizzerias’. Over the course of one week, @mickeytrueoriginal became the hub for all things Mickey & Friends(giving). We drove buzz and pizza pre-orders with teaser videos, save-the-dates, make-at-home menus, and Mickey & Friends(giving) profile pics and phone wallpapers, all leading up to the big event. In addition to driving sales to five local restaurants, the content gave fans and friends a way to get in on the activation even if they didn’t live in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Austin, or Phoenix.
On the day of the activation, Mickey & Friends(giving) drove over 314 million social impressions and 750,000 engagements with +90% positive sentiment. We also earned organic posts from celebrities across film, television, fashion, and food, including Jimmy Kimmel, Arden Cho, Eva Chen, Phil Rosenthal, Arielle Vandenberg, and Sean Wotherspoon.
Most importantly though, Mickey & Friends(giving) created a feel-good moment that sparked social buzz and genuine connection around the Sensational 6 at a time when everyone needed it most.
