Allen Au-Yeung, Disney’s Asia-Pacific Vice President of Creative and Product Development, on indulging his creative spirit, his life-long love affair with Disney, and marking Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday…

How did you become involved with Disney?

As someone who considered themselves inherently creative, I was always fascinated by Disney’s dedication to putting creativity at the forefront of everything it did, as well as its amazing ability to consistently create the most invitingly interesting products. I felt that this was completely in line with what I was looking for at the time. I joined the company back in 1996 and I’ve never really looked back.

What can you tell us about your current role at Disney?

Right now, I’m the Vice President of Creative and Product Development for the Asia-Pacific region. Essentially, I’m responsible for formulating a unified creative vision for all our team members across the region. This means designing Disney creative assets that tell our brand story, while also working closely with our business strategy teams to help create new products that are in keeping with our overall philosophy while remaining wholly aspirational.

How do you think Disney has managed to stay so relevant for quite so long?

Despite being a globally recognised brand, localisation has really been the key to its success. We do our utmost to incorporate elements of local culture in any relevant and unique Disney story we set out to tell in any of our markets. During last year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, for instance, we released a range of mooncakes featuring some of our best-loved characters.

Then, of course, there’s digitisation, which is clearly the most rapidly-developing sector right now. Apart from the expected social media platforms, many of which we are already using to help broaden our demographic, we’re also placing a real emphasis on e-commerce, especially within the Greater China market.

 

How do you juggle Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars with the more traditional aspects of the wider Disney universe?

The key to finding the right strategy lies in knowing just what consumers are looking for. To that end, Disney spends a huge amount of money on research, commissioning studies and analysing a wide range of demographics. The end result is that we are very aware of what people want.

We know, for instance, the strong appeal our princess characters – such as Cinderella and Snow White – have for young women. Equally, we know that men prefer the action and superheroics that come courtesy of Marvel and Star Wars. Meanwhile, with the younger kids, Pixar characters like Wreck-It Ralph are hugely popular. Ultimately, it’s all about targeting the right products at the right consumer group and making sure they fall in love with us regardless of their age or gender.

Given the breadth and depth of your back catalogue, is there still one character that really stands out for you?

That would have to be Mickey Mouse. He’s the character that Walt Disney himself developed and one that remains synonymous with our entire brand. His engaging personality, innate curiosity and happy-go-lucky nature have seen him consistently win hearts over the years, even though he’s now 90 years old. At heart, though, I think his appeal lies in the fact that he is pretty much the embodiment of eternal hope.

What did you do to mark Mickey’s 90th in Hong Kong?

We rolled out a variety of promotions, exhibitions and products that all commemorated this particular milestone. A few months ago, we also partnered with Times Square Hong Kong to stage an exclusive 90 Years of Mickey exhibition, which featured more than 90 unique pieces of memorabilia from the Walt Disney Archive, including 20 that had never been seen in public before. We’ve also partnered with a number of local companies to create various limited-release designs that are exclusive to the city.

Thank you.

Interview by: Tenzing Thondup
Photos: Neville Lee
Art Direction: San Wong