Disney's new parks boss outlines investment strategy, with superfans at the fore

Disney parks boss outlines investment strategy, with superfans at fore Skip Navigation Markets Business Investing Tech Politics & Policy Video Watchlist Investing Club PRO Livestream Menu Key Points Disney's new Experiences chairman Thomas Mazloum says his strategy is balancing the needs of its most ardent parkgoers with its less frequent visitors. This includes focusing on large-scale park expansions to draw in new guests and smaller, more immediate updates for annual passholders. Mazloum said these efforts are already paying off, touting the company's recent fiscal-third quarter in which the Experiences division posted record quarterly revenue. In this article DIS Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Artist concept art of the yet animatronic from Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. Disney It's not everyday that a live crowd goes wild for an animatronic yeti. But the audience at Disney's D23 Expo isn't just any old crowd, and its superfans are central to Disney's strategic parks investments — some $60 billion planned over a decade. "We are bringing the yeti back to life," Thomas Mazloum, chairman of Disney Experiences, announced to 12,000 Disney parks fans Saturday night during the division's D23 showcase in Anaheim, California. The repair he was referencing is within the Expedition Everest attraction at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom theme park. Since 2006, the ride's yeti has been stationary. At the time the figure was unveiled it was the largest and most complex audio-animatronic that Walt Disney Imagineering had ever built. But after only a few months, it broke. Its location within the finished ride made it difficult to fix, so Imagineers placed the machine in "B-mode," in which a strobe-light effect was used to give the illusion of movement. The broken animatronic has since become affectionately known as "Disco Yeti." Now, it's getting a second life. Mazloum, who became parks chief after Josh D'Amaro was appointed as Disney CEO , announced the yeti repair — as well as the return of fan-favorite characters Dreamfinder and Figment to EPCOT in Florida and an overhaul of Tomorrowland in California — to some of Disney's most ardent fans on Saturday. It's a signal of where the company plans to put its focus for the blockbuster Disney Experiences unit, made up of theme parks, cruise lines and consumer goods sales. As Disney expands its reach, it will need to lean on its most loyal attendees and biggest spenders to counter macroeconomic uncertainties and challenging travel trends. "It may not sound like a big thing, but something like the Yeti or Figment or really being serious about Tomorrowland, they mean a lot to people because they grew up with these stories," Mazloum told CNBC. "They're small, they're immediate, but they're meaningful," he added. A balancing act For Mazloum, the focus of his tenure as head of Disney's experiences division will be about balancing the company's massive expansion plans — new lands and area overhauls based on popular intellectual property — meant to attract the less frequent out-of-state and international visitors with more targeted updates and upgrades that annual passholders and more regular attendees want to see. "Our job is to listen carefully and then find the way to harmonize the different needs and wants," he said. "The simplest way to frame it is: I'm really focused on making sure we put our fans and the consumer and the guests into the center of our decision-making," he added. Mazloum said these efforts are already paying off, touting the company's recent fiscal third-quarter earnings report in which the experiences division posted nearly $10 billion in revenue , a 10% jump from the same quarter a year prior and a quarterly record. Concept art for the Car's Ridge Run Rally ride coming to Disney' Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. Disney "I believe the results are at the end of doing something right at the beginning, and that is really putting the fans in the center of our attention," he said. "That's why, despite some, you know, other companies reporting different results, we're doing extremely well in Florida. We're doing very well here in California, because we've listened carefully and we've really responded to the right consumer at the right time." Last month, rival Comcast reported lags in theme park attendance , particularly in Orlando, Florida. And yet, at Disney, domestic park attendance was up 3% and guest spending rose 4%. The company attributed strong attendance to its Cool Kids Summer promotion, which features kid-focused character meet-and-greets, dance parties and air-conditioned hangout spots as well as free water park admission for hotel guests. Disney also recently refreshed and reimagined park attractions like Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Big Thunder Mou