Disney’s Frozen is one of the most successful media franchises. Behind the success lies a well thought marketing strategy.

Disney’s Frozen is one of the most successful media franchises the company has ever launched. Behind its smooth computer generated graphics, memorable characters and strong soundtrack, lies a clever marketing strategy that utilized every trick in the book to reach as many fans as possible. 

Frozen become box office hit

In December 2013, generated an amazing $93 million during its opening weekend and set the record as one of the best Thanksgiving debuts to date. An exit poll revealed the latest Disney Princess installment received an A-plus score according to ticket buyers, The New York Times noted. However, the news outlet continued, the success wasn’t guaranteed as Disney took a gamble by pouring $250 million into the production and marketing of the animated feature. 

Part of the concern, NY Times continued, was the lackluster performance of The Princess and the Frog, which debuted in 2009. The movie was a disappointment at the box office, with boys being particularly reluctant due to heavy emphasis on the princess fairy tale in the movie’s title. Hence, Disney, who wanted to ensure a healthy return on investment, took a broader approach with the next installment, Tangled, which sparked a small controversy, but captured a larger audience. 

By infusing Frozen with the necessary humor, Disney was able to extend the movie’s reach to boys. Executive vice president for distribution at Walt Disney Studios, Dave Hollis, told NY Times that humor works particularly well with boys, which was fully embodied by Olaf, the snowman. Disney was able to craft an inclusive, yet broad, marketing campaign by testing different materials in selected focus groups. However, as with every campaign, a certain message will push away a subsection of a target audience.   

The success of Frozen will be much more than just box office success, the news outlet pointed out. Disney theme parks will ride on the popularity of hit-songs featured in Disney movies and Frozen will serve as an important morale boost for Walt Disney Studios, who has stood in the shadow of its subsidiary Pixar during the Academy Awards. Disney merchandise, a multi-billion dollar business, will enjoy the popularity of a new franchise. In hindsight, we know that Disney hadn’t anticipated Frozen to become as popular as it did, showing how powerful a strong animated-feature can be to push the company’s bottom line.  

Frozen’s Let it Go

A crucial element that helped Frozen reach massive popularity, was the song ‘Let it Go’, which became the first best-selling song of 2014, with its music video reaching over 1 billion views on YouTube. The tune of the song is not a coincidence, but carefully crafted to be as catchy as possible. In November 2017, Maddy Shaw Roberts from ClassicFM dove into the different parts of the song that turned into a smash hit and still remains relevant with audiences five years later. 

The song starts with the two-octave range of Idina Menzel, who works her way down an F3, accompanied by lyrics that imply a sad backdrop. As the song progresses, it transitions from a A flat major to a minor of F. This is where the songwriter breaks with the initial melancholic undertone, letting the pitch rise and infuse the song with more upbeat lyrics. Idina Menzel reaches her highest note, upon which the song enters its chorus with “Let it Go”. 

A stark contrast to the opening of the song. Roberts pointed out that the chorus is simple in its execution, home to only three notes. But thanks to their short interval the song becomes catchy and, most importantly, easy to remember. From here forth, the song keeps climbing to an E flat, adding more layers to the song up to its climax. Music enthusiasts, Roberts notes, will be familiar with the form, which is inspired from Puccini’s, Turandot, following the same three line structure.  

An important part contributing to the song’s catchiness, is the combination of a ballad with a 137 bpm allegro. Percussions join after the first chorus, adding a sense of accelerated rhythm, fueling the song’s intensity. With crochets replacing the minims and semibreves, Roberts notes, Let it Go departed from the initial ballad setup. The whole song is accompanied by strong, flashy, visuals that accelerate the theatrical display performed by Elsa. 

Pop music hooks

Frozen’s Let it Go fits the broader context of pop songs that are made to be catchy. In 2006, Professor of rhetoric and composition at Penn State Schuylkill, Keith Duffy, performed a study on how catchy choruses are able to nestle themselves firmly in people’s minds. The study, which used MRI scans, revealed that catchy songs elicit a ‘cognitive itch’ at listeners, which in turn can only be satisfied by listening to the song. Duffy found that when test subjects were given popular songs with familiar snippets removed, the brain would fill in the gaps, hearing the missing pieces whilst listening.

This effect was amplified with songs that contained lyrics. Professor of music composition at Penn State, Paul Barsom, adds the ‘itch’ remains intangible. If scratching this itch would be a fixed formula, every song would be catchy, he continued. However, certain song structures take a short cut and force it to be strongly embedded in the listeners mind. Short and strong phrases such as We will rock you, are easy to remember. 

Familiarity helps songs to create and maintain their catchiness. Barsom explains that unfamiliar music doesn’t connect well, noting that opposite genres won’t trigger as strong a response with listeners. Culture enhances the feeling of familiarity, such as music listened by a certain generation. The Beach Boys, he continues, connect summer and surfing, an appealing sentiment and lifestyle to listeners in this period. Repetition can form familiarity, the so-called hook, which was studied extensively by Australian researchers years later. 

This repetition, called hooks, ensures a song isn’t easily forgotten. Alternatively, radio broadcasters, or streaming services, can force a song to be catchy by repeating it, even if the song isn’t to the listeners liking. How the song is executed can also contribute to its catchiness. While these are elements that can help make a song stick with audiences, there’s no surefire way to make any song a hit. Tweaking the melody to make it more catchy is one way to enhance a song’s memorability.    

In January 2023, Dr Jadey O’Regan at Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Dr Timothy Byron, researcher at the University of Wollongong (UOW) made an in-depth study of what made pop songs so catchy, captivating massive audiences. In their book, Hooks in Popular Music they found similarities between hit songs. A crucial component of popular songs is their clever usage of hooks.However, Bryon explained, while one hook might work for one person, it might go unnoticed with others. Hooks are deeply personal, he notes. 

A hook can be anything within a song, a timbre, a melody or the rhythm. Bryon said they are the fabric of any pop music and crucial to make the song catchy,making them  appealing to audiences. Hooks are vital in modern day songs to make them stand out from the crowd, he elaborates. In the radio and streaming era, an average listener takes seven seconds whether to skip a station or go to the next song. Hence, a hook is required to move the listener beyond the seven second mark. Hooks are not an invention of recent years, but have been around since the 1960s. 

Easing copyright

As important as the foundations of a song are to catch one, it cannot reach a critical mass when it has limits on its exposure. To prevent the song from losing momentum too fast, Disney made an unusual decision to loosen its policies revolving around copyright infringement. In May 2014, Salon reported that many parodies had been made with Let it Go. The 20-year-old aspiring singer from Los Angeles, Kota Wade, popularity grew exponentially when she started to cover the song on her YouTube channel. 

Wade seized the opportunity by performing more alternate covers of the song and publishing a make-up tutorial for Elsa. Continuing that the ad revenue from just four videos featuring Frozen generated a monthly income. All without infamous copyright strikes YouTube is known for, which can render a channel non-existent overnight. The rules behind usage of Disney’s intellectual property remains vague, Wade pointed out. However, many creators play around with the different franchises, creating an entire ecosystem around Disney characters alone. 

Disney didn’t comment to Salon about its copyright policy, however the media company seems to have noticed that the increased exposure leads to more sales for DVDs, soundtracks and merchandise. This has been a departure from its previous stance, where it fought YouTube content tooth and nail. However, the value of the content has exceeded the profits of holding on tight to its intellectual property. Despite letting go of its strict policies, Disney has been pushing Frozen contact aggressively across YouTube. 

Strong momentum

Disney was able to maximize profits on the Frozen franchise by maintaining strong momentum, well after the movie’s theatrical release, AdAge reported in September 2014. The franchise had a stelar theatrical release, generating over $1.2 billion in ticket sales, strong after sales and merchandise licensing fees gearing up to reach $1 billion. CEO and editor-in-chief of TTPM, Jim Silver, told AdAge that toy sales were higher than when the movie opened a year prior. AdAge noted that Disney was able to maximize sales by adding new, fresh content to the franchise.

Frozen was accompanied by catchy music, pent-up demand for merchandise due to limited availability, catching analysts off guard, the news outlet commented. President of market research and consulting firm, Smarty Pants, Wynne Tyree pointed toward the limited merchandise supply across retail outlets during the movie’s opening, indicating that even Disney wasn’t convinced Frozen would become such a hit. In order to tap into the hype, teams at Disney decided to go for drip strategy, delivering content at a steady pace.

One such effort has been launching a karaoke app for $7.99 in May of 2014, tagging nicely into ‘Let it Go’ craze. Disney kept expanding the Frozen universe across its social media and blogging channels by releasing fashion quizzes for the show’s main cast, and publishing stylized wedding photos. In the same month, Disney surprised fans by announcing a collaboration between Elsa and the cast of ABC’s Storybrooke. Meanwhile, the cast at the Disney Channel sang “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” in the sweltering heat of July, generating strong awareness across YouTube.  

Strategic partnerships

Merchandising has generated an upward of a billion dollars for Disney. Over the course of the franchises’ global roll-out, Disney announced several strategic partnerships that helped generate additional revenue and allow licensees to tap into the power of the Frozen brand. In September 2014, Hasbro unveiled it had signed a strategic merchandising partnership with Disney for the Disney Princess and Frozen properties from 2016 onward. The rights would extend globally, excluding Japan, and include Frozen, but also other successful franchises such as Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and The Beast. 

In the press release Hasbro President and CEO Brian Goldner said they were delighted to have been selected by Disney Consumer Products to develop Disney Princess and Frozen dolls. Continuing to say that the company has developed a strong understanding of the market. Hasbro has a strong share in the girl’s category, growing the segment’s revenue from $300 million over the course of 10 years to $1 billion in 2013. 

The deal was a major blow to Mattel, who saw a strong brand slip away to one of its primary competitors. Analyst at Needham & Co. in New York, Sean McGowan, told Telegram & Gazette, noted that hundreds of millions in revenue would leave Mattel beginning 2016. The news outlet pointed out that Hasbro has shown strong recovery through its My Little Pony band, tripping its sales in the girls’ toys segment. Mattel remains confident in its portfolio, but seeing Disney’s preference shift toward Hasbro certainly made waves at the company.    

In January 2015, data from NPD Group showed that retail sales for toys in the U.S. had grown by 4 percent to $18.08 billion in 2014, primarily thanks to the strong appeal of Disney products. According to the data research firm, Frozen toy sales generated an upward of $531 million in the United States alone. Its sales number place the franchise alongside other strong characters such as Elmo and Furby, who perform strongly over the holiday period. The industry as a whole, Fortune notes, has been able to recover and reclaim growth by returning to the basics, instead of adding poorly executed gadgets. 

A modern interpretation

In February 2015, Marketing Week spoke with Walt Disney’s UK and Ireland CMO Anna Hill about the team’s efforts to break down gender stereotypes and go beyond the ‘pink factor’. Marketing Week notes that girls look for brands that go beyond pinkness. Hill noted that not all girls are the same, whilst some might be looking for more traditional fairy tales, others look for strong independent characters. The team achieved through both Elsa and Anna, being able to promote both narratives. Hill continues Disney in itself can create powerful role models. 

The ability to create strong female characters has been a continuous evolution since the first Disney princess franchises over 80 years ago, which have developed character attributes relevant to generations of today, Hill added. Frozen is a great example of how the classic tale, The Snow Queen, has been reimagined to fit the world of today. Elsa and Anna have remained true to Disney’s heritage, but also embody the modern values. Disney is able to appeal to girls by speaking to 50,000 children across Europe each year to discuss their lifestyle, media preferences and aspirations. 

By also listening to their caregivers, they can map out the different qualities to match audience preferences. Hill pointed out that through its research, it found that girls were less defined by their age, but by the stage of their lives. Cycling from confident, to expression, to patterns. This translates to a diverse audience, where girls of different ages can enjoy the same things, the team discovered. 

Not all were as impressed by the marketing campaign developed by Disney. In December 2013, Justin Chang commented in an opinion piece for Variety that the marketing campaign was doing the franchise any justice. Chang acknowledged that it had been a long time since he hummed along with a movie soundtrack, oddly remembering Mulan 15 years prior. Frozen had turned its soundtrack into a profit generating machine in and of itself, providing a wave of nostalgia to long time fans. 

Chang pointed out that the movie’s setup was not mere decoration, but a conscious effort to prepare audiences for its subsequent stage play. While not achieving the same heights as musicals during the Disney’s Howard Ashman-Alan Menken era, its creative interpretation, Chang continued, rivaled earlier hits such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty, which serve as the backbone for Frozen. Parts that deliver the familiar and authentic Disney magic, Hill would point out in her interview at Marketing Week, a few years later.   

However, the marketing materials, Chang noted, have little to do with the musical foundations that Disney is trying to convey so heavily through the movie adaptation. Instead, the promotional materials feature its main characters, set against a snowy backdrop, with Olaf acting as the comedic relief character. The contents, Chang argued, whitewash the actual contents of the movie, leaving out its musical prowess.  

The promotional trailers further tap into Olaf as the comic relief character, pushing Elsa further into the background. The character with the most complicated and compelling backstory. Anna remained fairly present, Chang observed, but coming fourth in terms of story and promotional importance. The decision remains a questionable decision to say the least. Furthermore, just as with Rapunzel, Disney opted for a gender neutral title, departing from the original , “The Snow Queen”. An attempt, Chang continued, to tone down the princess ambiance. 

In light of comments made by Hill a few years later, the decision to divert from a strong princess theme, aren’t too surprising, as it’s more befitting for the modern era. But, it remains counterintuitive to a story heavily relying on a royal female cast, a theme firmly rooted in Disney’s history. Chang adds that, while princesses have become a rare commodity, production companies can be more successful by targeting audiences across multiple demographics. 

In November 2014, The Hollywood Reporter cited figures from Disney Consumer Products who published sales numbers, revealing that over 3 million role-play dresses of Elsa and Anna were sold in the U.S. in less than a year. Over the Halloween period, Frozen toys and customers flew off the shelves. The demand for Frozen products already exceeded demand in spring, with Disney now ready to generate enormous sales. 

Letting go of tradition

As controversial as some decisions might have during the initial ramp up for Frozen, the teams at Disney learned from its mistakes. Changing the title was a strategic bet for the production team to draw in more audiences, going beyond just girls. The marketing materials themselves, while a departure from the traditional Disney Princess heritage, were carefully crafted to capture the largest demographic possible. Fans of the Disney Renaissance might have been disappointed, but the reach and effectiveness spoke volumes. 

Disney also loosened its otherwise infamous copyright policies after seeing the massive pick up with fans and creators, who submerged themselves in the world of Frozen. Creating parodies, covers and tributes to the magical theme of Disney’s latest animated feature film. The popularity of Let it Go reached hundreds of millions of people, acting as a marketing flywheel that kept accelerating for months and years to come. Long after the movie first hit cinemas. 

Sometimes an unconventional approach is necessary to make a product, or franchise, come to life. Sticking to previous strategies might work for certain periods, but when convention proves to not deliver the desired results, out of the box thinking might do the trick. These approaches can look trivial to outsiders, but acts like changing copyright policy are huge departures from corporate culture and to this day a too radical approach for most. Disney has proven that adjusting course, even when faced with scrutiny, can deliver enormous profits.