Licensing Disney Characters in Advertising
Disney is renowned across the globe, loved by children and adults alike. And it’s no wonder when you look at the catalogue of happy fantasy worlds, loveable and relatable characters and truly mesmerising stories Disney oversees.
With its extensive portfolio, Disney is one overarching name that comprises a library of many brands. Here are just a few of their most popular brands under each division (and we’re sure you’ll recognise most, if not all, of them!):
Disney Classic and Animation: Aladdin, Bambi, Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo, Frozen, The Lady and the Tramp, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh.
Lucas film: the Indiana Jones and Star Wars franchises.
Marvel: Ant-Man, The Avengers, Black Panther, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Deadpool, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hulk, Iron Man, Spiderman, Thor and Wolverine.
20th Century Fox: Alien, Avatar, Die Hard, Edward Scissorhands, Family Guy, Home Alone, Independence Day, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Simpsons, The Sound of Music, Titanic and The X Files.
Because of this global recognition and the wealth of characters they have to offer, we often have advertising agencies and brands ask for Born Licensing’s help in licensing Disney characters for their advertising campaigns.
To date, we’ve worked on countless scripts and productions featuring Disney properties. From brands including Barclaycard, Just Eat and British Airways to agencies including McCann London, Ogilvy London and AKQA, here are a few of the campaigns we’ve helped license and bring to life.
The Muppets and Barclaycard
Barclaycard’s creative agency, AKQA, developed a script featuring characters from The Muppets, and, in partnership with Talent Republic, Born Licensing handled the licensing process with Disney from start to finish.
Family Guy and Just Eat
Handling Just Eat’s creative, McCann London called on Born Licensing for the use of globally recognisable characters — we helped to secure Stewie and Brian Griffin from Disney’s Family Guy.
Winnie the Pooh and British Airways
British Airways worked with their creative agency, Ogilvy London, on a powerful script with the nostalgic British character Winnie the Pooh – thanks to our existing relationship with Disney, we gained initial buy-in for the feature.
Disney owned characters have been licensed for use in many other adverts for leading brands. We weren’t involved in the following adverts but wanted to share a few of our favourites!
The Muppets and Warburtons
Pinocchio and Beats by Dr. Dre
Star Wars and Volkswagen
Ant Man & The Hulk and Coca-Cola
Simpsons and Coca-Cola
Disney characters can be licensed and leveraged for advertising with many different outcomes, not just like the examples where Born Licensing was involved but also from some of our other favourite adverts we weren’t involved with. Whether it’s using a clip like Pinocchio and Beats by Dr. Dre, custom animations like Simpsons and Coca-Cola, referencing an iconic film moment like Star Wars and Volkswagen, the use of puppets like The Muppets and Warburtons or the live-action use of the characters like in Ant-Man and The Hulk and Coca-Cola. The opportunities for brands are endless and we feel very fortunate to work with Disney and have a strong professional relationship with them.
All of the Rights Holders we work with have slightly different processes when reviewing scripts so the production process and timelines can vary hugely. This experience allows us to provide agencies and brands with rapid initial feedback on the feasibility of an idea in terms of timeframes, budgets and creative. Our relationship with Disney also means we can get scripts and concepts in front of the right people for review and approval, making the whole production process faster and easier.
We love agencies coming to us with bold ideas using amazing characters from Disney and other Rights Holders, and we hope to see more agencies using these iconic characters in their work!
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