Client Challenge –
Creative Realities (CRI) was engaged to work with a variety of functional groups at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. A few of the challenges for which we were asked to help them innovate were:
- Create exciting, new family restaurant concepts for the Disney/MGM Studio
- Create an incentive system to motivate Epcot World Showcase guests to visit more of the gift shops in the individual country pavilions
- Create a motivating Cast (employees) Recognition System
- And many more
Collaborative Breakthrough – The Disney/MGM Studio restaurant invention process is a great example of creativity made real. During a CRI Invention Session the Disney team was asked to generate a list of vanishing Americana. Drive-in movies were one of the icons mentioned. Another exercise asked for favorite scenes from favorite TV shows, and Arnold’s Drive-In Restaurant from Happy Days came up. The group was then asked to combine elements from any of these exercises to create a new restaurant concept.
Reality – Launched in the ‘90’s, Disney’s Sci-Fi Restaurant combined the concepts of the drive-in movie theater and the diner, a drive-in restaurant with roller-skating service staff, milk shakes and burgers, served to the family in their “car” while watching snippets from classic, old, grade-B science fiction movies on an “outdoor” screen. It continues to win the hearts of families and earn awards like Disney Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Award for Best Disney-MGM Studios Restaurant for Kids in 2004.