A promotional tour across Europe

When the Euro Disney Resort opened in 1992, it was accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign, allegedly worth US$220 million ¹. No wonder, since the aim was to ensure that the park would be a success. The Walt Disney Company had invested a lot of money into the project. From signing off the contract with the French government on 24 March 1987 to the opening five years later on 12 April 1992, between US$4 and US$5 billion have been raised, depending on the source. ^{2 3} This is a large amount of additional expenditure compared to the initial estimate of one billion US dollars ⁴ and subsequently led to a high debt burden from which the resort was unable to rid itself for decades. But that is a story for another article.

Euphorized by the success of the Tokyo Disney Resort in Japan, which opened a few years earlier, the Walt Disney Company’s offices were planning to welcome 11 million visitors in their first year, from April to December alone. Under the leadership of the then 44-year-old Thomas Elrod, Chairman of Marketing and Entertainment of the Walt Disney Attractions division, the worldwide marketing strategy of the Euro Disney Resort was developed under this assumption and in view of the high total investment. ⁵ In a moment of complete imprudence, during a departmental meeting about coffee and biscuits, the following idea must have been born: “Let’s build a miniature Sleeping Beauty castle. That looks so cool. We’ll send it on a European tour through 12 cities. People will love it. Oh, and we’re also taking it to the Seville World’s Fair in Spain.” From today’s point of view, this is a daring and certainly costly idea, which was soon put into practice.

Disney in Germany

Countdown to the magic

The promotional tour also stopped by at the marketplace in Leipzig, Germany.

UK-based event agency Imagination, still operating today, was responsible for the execution. ⁶

Whether the tour took place before, after or around the World Expo cannot be exactly proven. Only the stop at Leipzig’s market square is recorded. Perhaps Milan and Madrid? The 21-metre high construction ⁷ made of steel and a fibre-plastic composite must certainly have left a lasting impression on visitors. By comparison, the real Sleeping Beauty castle in the park measures 50 metres. ⁸ Inside was a large circle of monitors. ⁹ What was on it has not been handed down. Maybe the same film as in the cinema of the Espace Euro Disney visitor centre,¹⁰ which offered a preview of what was to come not far from the park today?

Afterwards you could go to smaller side tents and meet Micky and his friends.

In the summer of 1992, our beloved castle made a guest appearance at the World Exhibition in Seville as a pavilion with a little delay. Although the Expo started in April, the castle was not built until a month later on 25 May. ¹¹ Did Thomas Elrod want to wait and see if the Expo would be a success? Or should the media attention this month not be distracted from the big park opening in Paris?

First coming late and then leaving early: after almost 4 months, on 13 September, the guest performance was over. Today, as then, all those remain who were too young, simply weren’t born or didn’t know about the whole event. It was a different time, without the internet, in which news came primarily from the newspaper and radio with their limited space and time. News that the Walt Disney Company is so crazy to send a whole castle across Europe to enchant people.

1. New York Times of 13 April 1992
2. New York Times of 13 April 1992
3. Information Note of the Hong Kong Legislature of 10 November 1999
4. Information Note of the Hong Kong Legislature of 10 November 1999
5. D23
6. Closed Facebook Group on 4 October 2020
7. Closed Facebook Group on 4 October 2020
8. Disneyland Paris
9. Tom K. Morris on Twitter on 16 January 2018
10. D23
11. The DLP Geek on 16 January 2018