Source: Toys”R”Us – “Exactly What You Wish For”
The RetailWire Christmas Commercial Challenge: Dick’s Sporting Goods vs. Toys ‘R’ Us
We’re one week away from determining the ultimate winner of this year’s RetailWire Christmas Commercial Challenge.
This week’s matchup pits Dick’s Sporting Goods with its “Sounds of the Season” against “Exactly What You Wish For” from Toys “R” Us.
The Dick’s commercial, which is set to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from The Nutcracker ballet, incorporates scenes from various sports and family gatherings to align with the spirit and “Sounds of the Season.”
“Exactly What You Wish For” from Toys “R” Us follows a young boy and his father through their respective preparations for Christmas until the big day arrives with a gift that … well, you’ll see.
The video has over 1.5 million views on YouTube to date.
Dick’s Sporting Goods “Sounds of the Season”
Toys “R” Us “Exactly What You Wish For”
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: What are your critiques of “Sounds of the Season” from Dick’s Sporting Goods and Toys “R” Us’s “Exactly What You Wish For” spots? Which does a better job of connecting with each’s core customers while reaching out to new ones?
Poll
BrainTrust
Lee Kent
Principal, Your Retail Authority, LLC
Ken Morris
Managing Partner Cambridge Retail Advisors
The Dick’s Sporting Goods ad definitely presented a lot of their products, but I found the commercial’s pace to be frantic and it lacked warmth. The Toys “R” Us commercial featured far less merchandise but pulled at your heart strings. My vote goes to Toys “R” Us.
Finally! Two ads that spoke directly about the brands. The Toys “R” Us spot had the emotion but Dick’s was upbeat, fun and all about sports!
For my 2 cents it’s Dick’s.
Dick’s commercial was a little long but clever. After a few seconds of showing quick shots of different sports, the point was made quickly that it was obviously a commercial for sports equipment. Toys “R” Us, on the other hand, showed toys but family was most important which was a message for the season. I liked the Toys “R” Us ad better.
The Dick’s spot is brilliant and true sports enthusiasts should want to search it online and watch it several times. For instance, the basketball player wears number 33 and the football player wears number 84. These numbers were/are worn by some of each sport’s hall of fame giants, and I had fun searching and reviewing the lists for each. And then there are the touches of humor that hearken back to our own history in sports. For instance, who as a youngster playing tee-ball did not first hit the tee instead of the ball? Or break a window with a great hit?
The Toys “R” Us ad is great too, but it’s a common story played out in media coverage of similar surprise. Not a criticism, but an observation: This spot is recycled from Toys “R” Us’s 2015 campaign. The Dick’s spot is new.
Toys “R” Us captures the spirit of the holidays in its spot, while Dick’s reminds shoppers that it has everything you need for sports. The Toys “R” Us spot wins. It touches all the emotional bases — showing what appears to be a single dad taking an active, loving role in his sons life, only to hit it out of the park when the military mom comes home for the holidays.
For me, Toys “R” Us is the winner this week. In fact, it is a good bet to win for the season based on what we have seen. Definitely a heartwarming piece with little to show who the ad was for until the end.
Dick’s was actually a little disappointing. There was too much going on and I found myself looking at the time to see how much longer it was going to last.
Who wouldn’t love each of these Dick’s and Toys “R” Us mini-stories and all others in their genre? This is where transmedia can really deliver brand building as the social media spots are shown in-store. Presenting the personality of the brand does not mean that they always have to sell, but why not? After all, these brands want to add to the quality of life with what they sell. Let’s see this kind of content on in-store and in-mall dynamic signage to leverage production costs and provide greater ubiquity in messaging. All purchases are emotional and this kind of content is the next step of in-store customer communications.
These are close. I’d give it to Toys “R” Us by a hair. Their ad seemed more like a holiday ad than Dick’s. Dick’s was clever — in its way — but went on too long and the pacing seemed a bit frenetic. Truth be told, I wasn’t crazy about either of them.
Emotion wins the heart at the holidays. Toys “R” Us by a mile on that score. But saying “we have what will make your [someone] happy” wins the wallet. Dick’s could have done that with a different cut on this spot. And it needs to be a 30 second ad. I’m giving this one to Toys “R” Us. NEVER bet against a mother — ever.
Dick’s Sporting Goods and Toys “R” Us are taking totally different approaches to their Christmas videos. Dick’s approach is to represent something that will appeal to everyone by showing a wide variety of sporting activities in a fast-paced montage of quick clips that are orchestrated to the sounds from The Nutcracker ballet. While it is fast-paced, it doesn’t seem to captivate viewers’ attention in an emotional way like the Toys “R” Us video.
From an emotional connection and inspiration perspective, I think the Toys “R” Us video is very captivating and tugs at people’s emotions. This is the type of video that will inspire people to share it with their friends and family and has the potential to become viral. I am not sure it will make consumers buy more gifts at Toys “R” Us, but it certainly will create a warm, positive brand image about Toys “R” Us.
Toys “R” Us does a better job appealing to emotion, as others here correctly observe. It’s a well crafted story, but the concept is unoriginal.
So I give the edge to the Dick’s spot by a hair, mainly because of the creativity of its storytelling concept. It provides numerous ways to relate and reasons to buy. (Besides, I’ve always been an aural learner.)
Personally I liked the Toys “R” Us spot better, but I thought the Dick’s spot was more effective. It showed a large variety of merchandise in an entertaining way that also spoke to the holidays. I was also pulling for the guy to finally make a basket! Honestly both were better than I expected.
The Toys “R” Us video was cute and communicated what is really important at this time of year. Yet this well-trodden message seemed flat. The brand was a mystery to me until the closing credits.
Dick’s Sporting Goods found something for every customer that walks through their doors from products to their use. There were some flashes of the brand name so you were aware of it throughout the fast-paced spot. The speed and energy are perfect for the brand and their customers.
Dick’s is the winner in this one!
Two terrific ads – perhaps even better than some of the previous winners. Dick’s does a very good job of positioning itself as the authority for purchasing sporting goods. I vote for Dick’s.
Clearly the winner is the Toys “R” Us ad. Not just based on my feelings but based on the fact that over 3 million people have viewed it vs. 4,567 for the Dick’s ad. More important than the views, the Toys “R” Us ad has actual engagement. Views can be manipulated in many ways, but there is a CTR on the video showing people actually took action from the video.
The Dick’s ad is weak. I already know by the name that Dick’s sells sporting goods so I would expect to find sporting goods in the store. I don’t need a commercial to let me know that. And frankly it was boring after about 10 seconds. But what is the brand message? The fact is that there is none because there is nothing that Dick’s does today that is not more convenient or less expensive online.
Toys “R” Us is showing they care more about you than just selling you something. They are engaging with your emotions. Dick’s wants to sell you sports equipment.
Toys “R” Us wins in this week’s challenge, but in my estimation, the best ad for the holiday is the Amazon ad with the priest and the imam.
Dick’s “Sounds of the Season” was clever and well done, but could have used some musical instruments in the background. Toys “R” Us’ “Exactly What You Wish For” was great in presentation and message, but weak in supporting toy sales. I give this one to Dick’s for product line presentation — you know what they sell.
Seems to me more a question of emotions (Toys “R” Us) vs. action and immediacy (Dick’s). I’d say immediacy is the greater instinct that will prevail — to rush out and buy. Thus, Dick’s would be the winner of this race.
I didn’t really care for either of the ads. The sound track for the Dick’s ad I found annoying — a clash between the background holiday music and the disparate “sports” sounds. The TRU spot took a random turn — not so much as 180 degrees as 63 or 95 degrees or something — which while wonderful in itself, made the message of the ad confusing. Much like the JCP ad a few weeks back, confusing a “sell” message with a PSA distracts from both concepts.
Nevertheless, I’ll give the edge to the latter: Geoffrey needs good news for a change and civic-mindedness should count for something.
Concur with the general discussion that these both do a nice job of connecting shopper truths with the stores. That said… 🙂
The Dick’s ad is far too long in its :60 version. At :15 seconds I’d gotten the gag … and really haven’t (when I’ve seen it on TV) wanted to stay tuned to figure out who’s behind it. It would have been far more brilliant with better identification of Dick’s throughout the spot. It ends up making that classic error where the creativity is far better remembered than the brand behind the ad. Sad.
The Toys “R” Us ad is an incredibly emotional story — and superb choice to have mom be the soldier coming home. Outstanding dad/son shots to build that story. But, as with Dick’s, the creative team worked way too hard hiding the brand behind the product. It wouldn’t have taken much. But many viewers will give at most 10 seconds to an ad like this. Tremendous lost opportunity when they chose no to identify the brand early.
This is one of the errors of “creative correctness” that is a plague on our business … art school definitions of “good” aren’t the same as effective advertising.