It’s a Disneyfied world!

One of the interesting facts we picked up on the Disney D23 Expo trip to Anaheim, California, is that the Philippines has the biggest Marvel fan base in the world: we even get to see Marvel movies here a full day before the US market, as with the recent Ant-Man release. This may be because so many Marvel inkers hail from the Philippines; or maybe it’s because most male Pinoys secretly believe they’re superheroes. Whatever the reason, it’s an important entry point for Disney, which acquired the Marvel superhero universe in 2009. (And, in case you’re wondering, Indonesia has the biggest Star Wars fan base, according to Disney regional research: the biggest annual Star Wars event happens in Jakarta, filling several floors of a mall there.)

All this plays well into Disney’s strategy of advancing its brands in Asia, where it will open a huge theme park in Shanghai next spring, and where it is investing massively to ensure that its many brands and businesses remain in the consciousness of Asia for generations to come.

You may think that’s no problem in the Philippines, where Hollywood movies and American brands are second nature. But Disney deploys a different strategy for every market. There is no “one size fits all” for Asia.

For Shanghai, according to Walt Disney Company chairman and CEO Bob Iger, they went big, despite tremors in China’s stock market in recent days: “Shanghai is the biggest investment we’ve ever made outside the US. Size-wise, it’s tied with the largest park we’ve opened, close to Tokyo size.” We got a glimpse at plans for the park’s construction in Pudong, and one thing is sure: the castle is the largest yet. “We wanted to send a signal that China’s the largest country in the world,” Iger noted. “How could we not build the largest castle we’ve ever built? We also wanted to make it an attraction — not just a castle, we wanted people to actually experience it, and they will.”

Other things are tailored to Chinese tastes. No more Main Street USA, for instance. (“We didn’t believe it had any resonance or relevance for Chinese people today. We didn’t think they were curious about it.”) And Pirates of the Caribbean, which is usually just one Disney ride, will have a whole Pirate Cove to explore in Shanghai.

Promises Iger: “You’ll get an authentic Disney park experience, but distinctly Chinese. Many shows will be directed and created by Chinese artists — with strong elements of Chinese performance, acrobats, costume design, the food and of course, the language.” He noted that, unlike most companies operating abroad, they had designers describe everything in Mandarin, and then translate it to English for Disney. “That’s the reverse of what an American company will normally do. Instead, we built things that may not make sense to us, language-wise, but will definitely make sense to the people who visit.”

Similarly, Disney looks to each individual Asian market for its strengths: for India, they cultivate local talent, actors and designers for expansive Broadway-level productions such as Beauty and the Beast performed in Hindi; Disney even purchased UTV, the largest Indian TV channel, to develop Disney-friendly programming.

According to Andy Bird, chairman of Walt Disney International, they also discovered something unique about the Japanese market: “There’s an adoration, a very deep bond with the Disney brand among the young female demographic aged 16-24 — sometimes referred to as Office Ladies, because they literally will leave their office as a group for a day out and go to the Disney resort nearby.”

Because Disney characters reach a more mature audience in Japan, even the posters for, say, Frozen, were slightly different in Tokyo, marketing it as a “date” movie. And young Japanese women even like Disney in their fashion, as shown by the popularity of special designer shops like D-Signed and Uniqlo’s “Magic For All” line of Disney-themed apparel. Call it the kawaii effect.

And now, each Disney Channel worldwide (there are hundreds) has a greater portion of local content — sometimes 50 percent — reflecting the importance of finding the brand a comfortable home in each Asian country.

There are three keys to Disney’s continued growth, according to Iger.

1. Creativity. Walt Disney understood this, right from the start: when his first feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, generated huge profits, he plowed it into building an animation studio in downtown Burbank, California. He knew that he wanted to surround himself with creative people: that was lesson number one.

2. Technology. When those artists and animators saw how much creative freedom they had, Walt took the next step: he expanded technology to match their imaginations. He and brother Roy came up with the multi-plane camera system to add depth and lush dimensions to cartoons like Bambi and Pinocchio. Later, he built Disneyland and had his park creators — now called Imagineers — dream up ride attractions that brought his characters to thousands of visitors daily in new, interactive ways. Going further, he developed animatronics to breathe life into animals and, later, US presidents like Abe Lincoln.

3. International growth. Lesson three was implicit in Disney’s growing dreams: expansion, first across America to Orlando, Florida, and then onward to Europe — and finally Asia.

It’s not exactly news that Asia is the big pearl that keeps Hollywood’s coffers full these days; international box office increasingly comes from Asian markets, sometimes half of it from China, as in the case of Avatar and Frozen. So it’s not surprising that Disney would want to invest as much as possible in raising brand awareness here.

As mentioned, Disney has a separate strategy for each Asian country — what Bird calls a “bespoke” approach. For the Philippines, brand recognition is fairly high, but spending is still in early stages — though Bird notes, “We’re seeing increasing numbers of Filipino guests going to Hong Kong Disneyland.” For the Philippines, “It’s about giving consumers different touch-points to our brands and stories, whether it’s digitally or physically when they purchase.”

Partnering with local manufacturers is one way, from licensing deals with Disney — say with SM or Uniqlo to make and sell apparel — to tying up with telecom partners to provide exclusive content — as Disney recently did in a multiyear deal with Globe telecommunications to provide more online content for devices and phones, including video-on-demand, interactive apps and games.

Then there are promotional tie-ins. Says Seshasaye Kanthamraju, Disney Southeast Asia’s executive director of Corporate Communications and Citizenship, “Brand partners always want to be part of our Pirates movie or Iron-Man or Avengers. So we create integrated solutions where brand partners come onboard with us. Say you manufacture shampoos; when a movie like Tangled comes into cinemas, you partner with us on that, and Tangled visuals show as part of the ad on TV; on the product, we provide imagery from Tangled and exclusive merchandise that can be packaged with it; online there might be a game tied into it.”

Since gaming is also huge here, Disney updates its popular Infinity 3.0 platform to include a raft of new Star Wars and Marvel content, not to mention popular Disney characters for home players (the rollout of these new editions was a big hit at the D23 Expo).

For kids who still primarily watch TV, there are tons of new shows on Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior that reflect different cultures and a new generation of international viewers.

Once upon a time, Disney would focus on separate divisions in each Asian market: just consumer products here, or DVDs there. But four years back, according to Kanthamraju, the company started taking a more “integrative” approach, linking all of its businesses — movies, consumer products, parks, online, television — and rolling out multiple versions at the same time to maximize brand presence.

It seems to be working like magic, though don’t expect a “Disney Philippines” to open here anytime soon. As Bird notes, infrastructure is one big factor when choosing how fast the company expands in an Asian market. And Manila’s infrastructure is still decidedly… in the slow lane.

At least, in the meantime, Manila still has its rabid Marvel fans, and movie releases a day earlier than the rest of the world.