Yet Another Sponsor Leaving?

[WDWHound]

Screamscape is reporting that Exxon/Mobil is considering backing out of its sponsorship of Ellen's Energy Adventure and that Fed Ex is no longer sponsoring Space Mountain (both at WDW and DL).

How many sponsors have to leave before Disney figures out that they cant keep charging sky high sponsorship rates and offer next to nothing in return?

 

[mjstaceyuofm]

The Orlando Sentinel also is reporting today that GE is officially out as the sponsor of Illuminations.

Makes you wonder....

 

[wdwguide]

I think it's only a matter of time before we've got...


Illuminations, presented by ABC
The Great Movie Ride, presented by Touchstone Pictures
Space Mountain, presented by Hyperion
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, presented by Hollywood Pictures


etc...

 

[Bstanley]

When Disney 'loses' a sponsor or two as the contracts come up for renewal I might chalk it up to high sponsoring costs, or negotiating ineptitude or the slow economy.

When Disney 'loses' EVERY sponsor as their contracts come up for renewal I start wondering what is actually going on. Perhaps we are closer to splitting EPCOT into two parks than we thought, perhaps we are close to seeing 'Microsoft' plastered all over the place , or what???

 

[WEDWAY100]

When Disney 'loses' EVERY sponsor as their contracts come up for renewal I start wondering what is actually going on.

IMO, what is going on is that Disney charges too much for the value of the sponsorship. Years ago, many of their attractions gave such a WOW that companies wanted their name associated with it. Today, those same attractions are older, and consequently have lost their WOW. But Disney still wants to charge big bucks for the sponsorship.

It seems as if I remember sponsors leaving in the past, when attractions got stale. But there was always the new thing to WOW us again, and sponsors picked up the newer attractions. Ex: GE sponsored CoP, then Horizons, and picked up Illuminations (I think they may have even sponsored 2 of these at one time). There haven’t been very many of the new E-tickets that really WOW lately.

 

[Bob O]

Its obvious that the sponsors are finding little value in the deal that disney is offering them. And that may be bad news as disney shows no inclination to spend their own money to improve their attractions and have been using sponsors to bankroll any thing major.

 

[HB2K]

But hey, HP LOVES their deal with M:S.

Yeah right.