For nearly a hundred years, the name Disney has been synonymous with magic, wonder, and awe. With a distinct and ever-expanding roster of beloved characters, including Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Elsa, Arial, the Marvel Universe, and countless others, Disney has become one of the biggest media companies in the world, with an undeniable global reach and an unparalleled impact on popular culture.
Until recently, Disney's consumer product division chose to license out the use of those iconic names to third-party groups rather than develop products internally. So when Disney contacted Boombang to discuss new business opportunities, we saw a rare chance to help steer them into a new and promising design and partnership model.
At first, we were excited to dive in and capture the creative inspiration of the thousands of Disney names we all know and love. But after some research, a strange thing happened: we realized that for as established and admired as many of the characters are, the Disney ethos is actually larger than any single figure. Mickey Mouse and Peter Pan, and Goofy are highly memorable and capture distinct moments in the company's evolution, but no one character fully embodies the Disney brand.
So instead of focusing on any specific character, we sought to establish and develop a consumer products brand imbued with the classic Disney spirit. From that thinking came endless hours of sketching and exploring to determine what that might look and feel like. And what it looked like to us was, to borrow a phrase, pretty magical.
From kid-friendly kitchenware and baby feeding utensils to consumer electronics, appliances, and robotics, we incubated and designed more than 35 consumer products in eight categories within 24 months.
While none of these fun, easy-to-use goods featured Disney characters, all of them—including products like The Ice Creamer and The Blender—captured that inherent Disney look and feel and embodied Disney’s unique sense of wonder and whimsy.
Once we had created a successful line of character-agnostic products, Disney asked us to apply the same creative thinking to character-specific toys as well. Soon a suite of products including alarm clocks, bubble guns, sippy cups, and boomboxes featuring the likeness of notable Disney characters like Tigger, Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, and Snow White was brought to life.
Because Disney trusted us to innovate and protect the integrity of their brand, Boombang was able to invent a completely new business model for them, with a new design language that revolutionized the way they approach product development and creative partnerships moving forward.
As proof, the year after our collaborations launched, Disney’s revamped Consumer Products division showed an additional $66 million in annual revenue. By bringing Disney into the home—and kitchen—in new and inventive ways, Boombang increased Disney’s brand exposure as an integrated part of a family’s everyday life by 11%.