Disney’s Super-Serving Everywhere
If you’d pulled up Disney+ one day last week, you would have wondered what year it was. The streaming service was hyping Camp Rock, the Jonas Brothers, and Demi Lovato.
At the 2026 D23 Expo, Anne Hathaway talked about Princess Diaries as if 25 years hadn’t passed.
‘Princess Diaries 3’
Why has Disney behaved so nostalgically lately? There’s a marketing reason for it. Disney’s super serving is everywhere. What is it, and why has Disney gone all-in on the premise?
Once you know what it is, you’ll realize it’s been happening for generations now.
Who Are Super Users?
Super serving sounds like a compliment you’d hear during a tennis broadcast. In truth, marketers have identified a core audience for every popular brand.
The people who interact with a company the most are the “super users.”
DIsney
They’re the diehard fans who blow the curve for everyone else. Remember the ones who always got the A+ grades in everything?
The Walt Disney Company has tracked a similar behavior among its consumers.
DIsney
Across Disney’s media empire, its super users consume much more content. They also vote with their wallets in buying more Disney merchandise.
On the vacation front, they’re more likely to travel on Disney cruises and visit Disney theme parks.
Photo: Disney
In other words, they’re Disney’s bread and butter, the foundational customers. Before we discuss Disney specifically, let’s understand how super users skew stats:
“Representing 22% of the U.S. population, Super Users spend more than double the amount of time consuming media as all other users.”
Disney
In terms of actual usage, normal consumers average 9 hours and 21 minutes of usage per week. Super users more than double that amount to nearly 19 hours.
If you were running a business, who would you target, the casuals or the diehards? Disney’s not stupid. It’s doing the same thing with its business.
What Is Super Serving?
This brings us to the notion of super serving, a tactic specifically targeting super users. This strategy has existed for a long time, with Fast Company posting this article in 2019.
The thesis involves targeting super users almost to the exclusion of more casual fans.
Photo: Disney
Disney’s not doing that, as it’d be bad for business, especially in the tourist areas. The super users can and do travel more, but it’s not enough to make up for excluding everyone else.
No, Disney’s tactics are more casual yet pointed. It knows who its super users are.
Photo: Disney
Many of them fall into the Millennial age group, which isn’t theoretically best for business. Still, Disney is currently identifying, reaching, and super-serving this demographic.
The company knows that super users consume and spend exponentially more.
Photo: Disney
Importantly, they also have children. And that’s the genius of Disney’s plan. The company can release titles that parents can and do happily share with their kids.
Parts of Gen Z and especially Gen Alpha may not know much about Camp Rock. However, their parents do and bond with them via these titles.
Photo: Disney+
So, Disney is currently super-serving the heads of the family with this content. Disney chooses projects based on the people who consume content the most.
Then these parents pass their love of these stories on to their kids.
Photo: Disney
In this way, the parents are indoctrinating their kids into Disney FOR Disney! We don’t think of the behavior this way, but it’s a clinical way of describing the situation.
When Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers appear in Camp Rock 3, they’re bridging the gap.
Photo: Disney
Moms and dads watched the original film in 2008. Eighteen years later, they’ve got kids of their own.
By super-serving parents, Disney is marketing to multiple generations at once.
Nostalgia Works
Disney’s fingerprints have been all over this strategy recently. We’ve witnessed it in movie theaters and on Disney+.
Did you watch Freakier Friday or The Devil Wears Prada 2?
Freaky Friday’s reboot debuted in 2003, while The Devil Wears Prada came out in 2006.
Photo: Disney
Anyone who watched those films as a pre-teen is now in their mid-30s now. On Disney+, Phineas and Ferb added new seasons in the 2020s, remarkable for a 2007 series.
In the aftermath of D23, some fans lamented Disney’s renewed commitment to nostalgia.
Phineas and Ferb
What they didn’t realize is that Disney had implemented a marketing plan here. The Incredibles 3 embodies the premise, as the first film debuted in 2004.
We just witnessed it at the box office with Toy Story 5, whose story leans into the core philosophy.
Toy Story Land
Kids who grew up watching the Toy Story films actually played with physical toys. Now, they’re parents who have raised an entire generation of kids on digital tech.
The latest Toy Story 5 super-served Disney fanatics by feeding them nostalgia. In the process, they laughed at the evolution of their own lives, as they’re now parents.
‘Toy Story 5’
So, they can take their children to watch Toy Story, just as their parents had done with them. The full-circle nature of this strategy takes my breath away.
While other media companies struggle to sell original content, Disney’s flexing its IP muscles.
Photo: Disney
The company is dipping into its treasure trove of beloved brands to create sequels. Super users want to watch this content, and they bring their kids along for the ride.
For this reason, you can safely expect the nostalgia wave to continue until it stops working, presuming that’s even possible.
