Disney is enjoying a great run in Southeast Asia, where films such as Frozen and The Avengers have been breaking box office records.

Young populations, with more money in their pockets, are flocking to the cinema, while cinema chains are busy building plush new theaters in a bid to keep up with demand.

It’s the kind of dynamism Disney executives were hoping for after reorganizing operations in Southeast Asia just over three years ago, to capitalize on the region’s economic promise.

The restructure brought together separate divisions for theatrical, TV, interactive and consumer products under a new post, The Walt Disney Company, MD, Southeast Asia, promoting Rob Gilby to the role.

Disney is throwing its weight behind key franchises, Gilby explains, developing content plans that the company can deploy in-store with retail partners for example, to help sustain awareness and engagement, in the same way it creates programming based on core franchises for distribution via TV and online platforms.

“When you look at the creative engines, they are firing on all cylinders,” Gilby remarks. “We are looking at how do we bring that to market. There will be lots of partnerships, lots of separate deals, always based around our core properties.”

Disney struck new consumer product licensing deals with over 400 partners in the region after bringing the business back in house around 18 months ago, opening offices in Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila and Kuala Lumpur in the process.

Consumer products is Disney’s second-biggest business line in Southeast Asia, after theatrical, spanning the food, health, beauty, fashion accessories and home sectors, as well as toys.

For Disney, it's a core rather than ancillary business, but its value as a marketing platform is also getting more attention.

Inspired by its Japan office, Disney is promoting the role of design to communicate brand experiences through its consumer products, in the same way traditional storytelling and production skills can help sustain brand franchises through programs for online and TV.

“It’s not just about the sale of merchandize after an event,” Gilby says. “Fans want to wear the clothes, they want to have the iPhone cover. We have to create it. It’s one of the ways of continuing the relationship with the characters and the properties.”

Older audiences

At the same time, Disney’s traditional kids audience is expanding to include young adults through the addition of the Marvel stable, which is resonating well in Southeast Asia, as well as Star Wars, which the company hopes will make a similar impact when the next movie in the series hits cinema screens next year.

Consumer lifestyles around mobile and social platforms are also evolving faster than expected, prompting Disney to sign its first major distribution and marketing deal with a telco, Globe in the Philippines, last month.

Disney has been ramping up its digital distribution in Southeast Asia, now almost on a par with its traditional pay-TV business but growing at a faster rate, rolling out its Disney Movies On Demand SVOD service with existing partners such as StarHub, as well as new ones such as Thai paid video aggregator, Hollywood Movies HD.

At the same time, short-form video specialist Maker Studios, an MCN acquired by Disney last year, opens up a new way for companies to communicate with consumers, especially important for Disney as it looks to drive revenues by engaging audiences across multiple touchpoints.

Mobile also represents a new landscape outside Disney’s traditional touchpoints, that can help connect with new audiences as well as develop new revenue streams.

To capitalize on the success of its core properties, Gilby and his team have to keep up.

“The mobile growth is even faster than we anticipated, not just in the number of handsets but actually the take-up of video,” he tells Media Business Asia.

“A lot of people underestimated that. While the data speeds look very low, there’s a lot of entrepreneurial and enterprising people that find a way to access video via mobile.”

Globe, an affiliate of Singapore-based telecoms major Singtel represents a landmark deal, and could be followed by tie-ups with other telcos, including those within Singtel’s network, that have a wide reach.

At the same time, Gilby is exploring other ways Disney can embed itself deeper in the telco-related space. That could mean collaboration with a traditional pay-TV platform looking to get into mobile, or a handset maker or a content provider working on mobile services.

The goal, as with all of Disney’s partners, is to widen Disney’s exposure across Southeast Asia via distribution partners that not only have the right footprint but displays a good of understanding of brands and marketing, as well as local audiences.

“The growth of mobile will probably become one of the most important definers of Disney business in Southeast Asia as we move ahead,” Gilby says.

“Reaching audiences through mobile, engaging their life experiences through mobile, and connecting that to their real world, to a mall experience, to how you buy movie tickets with a mobile, how you make purchases or recommendations through a mobile, how you enjoy music and video through mobile, all of it is so critical for our markets.”

The pact with Globe, for example, offers a promising foundation for emerging revenue streams, such as ecommerce.

“They have a great billing mechanism directly with subscribers, and they understand payment models in emerging markets, in terms of prepaid, higher volumes and smaller transaction values, which is a really important business model in the emerging markets,” Gilby explains.

“A partner like Globe is really good for us, now and for the longer term.”

The Merits of Maker

At the same time, Maker – also part of the Globe deal with subscription service Maker On Demand – helps Disney promote its own products, as well as those from other advertisers, in a social setting, while doubling up as a popular media outlet for some of Disney’s core demographics.

“We are learning a lot as an organization about how to participate in those communities,” Gilby says.

Globally, Disney has prioritized its franchises, highlighting which ones need to be sustained, which need to be elevated, and which need to be amplified in preparation for a big launch.

It is Gilby’s responsibility, and primary challenge, to apply that grid to where he sees growth opportunities in Southeast Asia, assigning related content and resources from Disney’s library across all the divisions to move on those.

“I still see so much extra room, because there are so many people we haven’t reached with some of our properties,” he says.

One project for example is raising the profile of Disney Junior through related apps, magazines and consumer products as well as through the channel.

Gilby sees the brand as a potential on-ramp for people to experience a wider range of Disney IP as they get older.

“The properties work, but it is not yet established in someone’s mind as, ‘that’s a Disney Junior show, that’s a Disney Junior toy’,” he says.

“That’s a nurturing area for example but it’s a portfolio. Our job is to maximize the portfolio, and the best way to do that is to create the best fan experience.”