The revival of Disney Channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place” was the No. 1 program on Disney+ following its debut late last month. The success of “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place” comes thanks, in part, to the work of three Mouse House marketers who combined their childhood memories of the Disney Channel staple with tactics used for the original show’s marketing to introduce the franchise to a new generation.

The marketers of the new show knew there was a built-in fan base that watched the original series more than a dozen years ago. An official trailer released on Sept. 24 quickly became Disney Channel’s most-watched comedy trailer to date, with 69 million views across social media and YouTube in just its first 10 days.

“It’s really special when you’re a fan of the series and you’re able to pull those little nuggets since you know all the little references and nuances to a show,” said Kelly Tran, media coordinator, media planning at Disney Branded TV, one of three 28-year-olds who worked on the campaign. “You’re able to see what to highlight and where we need to go to make sure that this new generation is able to feel that same special magic that we did the first time around.”

The three millennial marketers expressed to Ad Age the excitement of being assigned to work promoting the show, having grown up on the shenanigans of its Russo family, the central figures of the series who are in the process of passing on their sorcery traditions to its youngest members: Alex (Selena Gomez), Justin (David Henrie) and Max (Jake T. Austin).

“Wizards Beyond Waverly Place” follows a young wizard, Billie (Janice LeAnn Brown), who seeks training from the now grown-up Justin Russo. It premiered on Oct. 29 on Disney Channel and followed the next day on Disney+.

Paulina Martinez, manager, social media at Disney Branded TV, grew up in Mexico before moving to the U.S. at around the age of 10, learning English through “Wizards of Waverly Place” and other Disney Channel shows of the aughts. And Nicole Liew, manager, marketing strategy and integrated planning at Disney Branded TV, remembers singing the “Crazy Hat Song,” a jingle sung by Gomez’s character and her best friend when they see someone wearing a headpiece matching the description, with friends and family as a kid.

Cross-generational marketing

The “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place” promotional rollout was led by a multi-generational team including younger members such as Martinez, Liew and Tran, as well as marketers who worked on promotion for the original “Wizards of Waverly Place” series, which ran on Disney Channel from 2007 to 2012. The resulting work was a coalescence of ideas representing both eras of TV marketing, said Liew, adding that reaching “Zillennials” nostalgia watching and young viewers who have no past with the show were two different acts of, well, wizardry.

One direct example is a revamp of the classic Disney Channel “Wand ID,” or the segment in which the show’s stars use a glistening stick to trace the network’s mouse ears logo. While the concept is quickly recognizable to fans, its made-for-TV format wasn’t fit for social sharing in its original form.

For social, the segments were shortened to capture attention faster. Other versions shared on social were longer, behind-the-scenes segments, which Martinez said was an effort to expand the signature elements of classic Disney Channel viewing to meet the media behaviors of today’s young viewers.

While the trio pulled from experiences watching the original series in planning the marketing for young audiences, “TikTok also didn’t exist back then,” said Liew. To translate what was magical about the series in 2007 for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, Liew said the team did the math of what values those audiences seek in entertainment brands with what themes resonated with them as kids—representation, family and silly humor being standouts.

Social content on owned channels, as well as additional paid media, was curated for the various audiences. For example, Disney Channel and the “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place” Instagram accounts have larger parent followers, Martinez said, while the same accounts on TikTok have more followers new to the franchise. As such, content shared on Instagram and Facebook leaned more heavily on showcasing the original series’ stars, such as Gomez and Henrie, and throwback content meant to be relatable (and sharable) for users remembering life during “Wizards of Waverly Place.”

TikTok, on the other hand, has more content introducing the new show’s young stars, led by Janice LeAnn Brown, and recapping the original series. On the day of the sequel’s premiere, Disney posted the series finale of “Wizards of Waverly Place” on TikTok with commentary from Henrie. The episode playlist—it’s split into 13 pieces—had anywhere from 51,000 to 6.5 million views per video as of writing.

The “gang’s back together” post (above) reached 23.6 million impressions across Instagram and TikTok as of Nov. 5, and the show’s premiere event overall generated 84.9 million impressions across platforms.

The campaign also leaned into family viewing that might include parents who grew up watching the original series with children seeing “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place” as their first experience with the Russos. Paid media to capture co-viewers included CTV platforms such as Vizio, Samsung and Amazon Fire, display ads on YouTube and out-of-home in Times Square. 

The OOH strategy also capitalized on the show’s Halloween season launch by placing branded archways at pumpkin patches around the country and distributing “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place” themed trick-or-treat bags.

The trio of young marketers said the experience working on “Wizards Beyond Waverly Place” was a unique one in the collaboration across generations and ranks of executives. And while none of them said they pulled any strings to get the assignment, they each explained pinch-me moments in the process.

“These were people that I feel like raised me,” said Martinez, describing pitching the social media plans to Gomez. “I couldn’t believe I grew up watching the show, and now I was going to market it and make them proud.”

“11-year-old me is very stoked right now,” added Liew.