The thing Disney is most famously known for are their characters. In fact, the most famous of them all is…yep, Mickey Mouse!
So powerful is the character Mickey Mouse that he is the reason they created their now famous parades. Years ago when asked what people’s number one complaint was it wasn’t long lines, bad food or service. People’s biggest complaint was that they never saw Mickey Mouse. Thus, you now have several parades with the star always being Mickey! This way, anyone who wants to can see Mickey in the parade.
The Walt Disney Company has a way of bringing characters to life. They are the masters of making people fall in love with their characters or make people really despise their villains.
It’s crazy to me that people stand in lines for over two hours to ride their favorite rollercoaster or splash ride. It’s even more crazy when I stood in line for over an hour so my daughters could see all the Disney princesses or when I hear of a two hour wait to see Rapunzel! But, these are characters that our kids bond with and they want to be in their world.
One thing I feel we do well at Kid Nation is create fun characters that our kids enjoy. We’ve created Chef Christian, Curly Joe, Timmy the Explorer and more that our kids love. In fact, after one of our services we did pictures and autographs and I was amazed at all the kids who lined up to take a picture with the now famous Chef Christian.
Why did they do this? They did it because we created a compelling character who was entertaining and fun. The kids want to be as cool as our characters. This gives our characters permission to speak into the kid’s lives, especially when it coms to spiritual things.
You don’t need the latest and greatest technology or a bunch of money to create a compelling character. In fact, it has nothing to do with money and everything to do with people and their personality. Adam Bush from Church on the Move wrote in a recent blog post:
That’s all it is—using the best tools you have to creating the best you possibly can.
Read Adam’s post HERE and watch their Kids on the Move Live service and see how powerful a character can be.
Do you use character? Why or why not? How do you use them? Are the effective?
PJ
