Will digital promotions make Target’s Christmas?

Will Target’s recent rebound continue or will a rough holiday season negate the chain’s recent gains? That’s what many Target watchers are wondering as the chain kicks off a new holiday marketing program that may play a major role in answering that question.

According to Advertising Age, Target is dedicating 61 percent of its holiday media spending to digital, a 10 percent increase from last year’s 51 percent. The company is spending less on outdoor advertising and print.

"That’s where our consumer is," Jeff Jones, CMO of Target, said in an interview with Advertising Age, explaining the increased holiday focus on mobile and social media.

The crux of the holiday marketing campaign seems to be a "digital storybook" titled "The Holiday Odyssey" narrated by Neil Patrick Harris. The animated story went live yesterday on target.com/adventure and will begin a season-long narrative arc that the company indicates will include other digital and social elements alongside television commercials.

Target Holiday Adventure

Source: target.com/adventure

The campaign will also involve crossovers between popular entertainment properties like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, LEGOs and Barbie. Target has also created a commercial featuring Storm Troopers from the Star Wars franchise that is set to run in theaters on December 18th for the premiere of the hotly-anticipated movie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Target has used Star Wars as a cross-platform marketing peg before. In August, in the ramp up to the Star Wars promotional holiday known as "Force Friday" and the launch of a new line of Star Wars action figures and memorabilia, Target released an online commercial featuring children in old home videos expressing their reactions to the franchise. The nostalgia-fest was tied to Target’s #ShareTheForce Twitter campaign, and pushed curious users to a standalone interactive website to publicly share Star Wars-related memories.

In light of all the branded properties, Target’s focus on digital media for the holidays seems explicitly geared towards collectors, gamers, toy customers and the parents thereof — presumably a sound move for the holiday season. But how it fits into Target’s overall customer strategy remains to be seen.

BrainTrust

"Oh — and make sure you don’t offend feminists and Star Wars fans by replacing Leia with Luke on a t-shirt. (Target, my daughter is still upset with you.)"

Zel Bianco

President, founder and CEO Interactive Edge


"It really isn’t about product or selling anything, which might happen, but it is more about the excitement it can generate and giving visitors a peek at the future of retail. This is disruptive retail and perfect use of a Pop-Up Retail strategy."

Karen S. Herman

CEO and Disruptive Retail Specialist, Gustie Creative LLC


Discussion Questions

Is focusing on digital for the holiday and courting toy shoppers through online media a good investment in terms of Target’s overall branding? Will the customer Target is approaching with the interactive holiday push become a Target-loyal customer after the holidays?

Poll

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Zel Bianco
Zel Bianco
8 years ago

Digital media with a focus on branded properties is an excellent strategy for Target and any similar store. Particularly in terms of properties that are releasing a wide array of merchandise for the season — it is good to know that you can go to Target and get the right thing. In terms of turning these customers into Target-loyal shoppers, that all depends on the shopping experience in-store and online. Oh — and make sure you don’t offend feminists and Star Wars fans by replacing Leia with Luke on a t-shirt. (Target, my daughter is still upset with you.)

Max Goldberg
Max Goldberg
8 years ago

As long as a common theme or core story of the brand message runs throughout the ads, Target can build brand loyalty. Target, sometimes to its credit and other times to its detriment is experimenting with many programs at once. The ones that stick will be continued, the one that don’t will be dropped. This approach is necessary in today’s fast-moving consumer environment and because of Target’s past downturn in sales. I expect the company will gather a lot of useful data from these campaigns. My question is whether Target will be able to consistently stock its stores to meet consumer demand, or will there be lots of gaps on the shelves, as in past holidays, which only leads to customer disappointment and damages the brand?

Howard Davidson
Howard Davidson
8 years ago

Target is approaching this exactly right. As an agency that does many digitally-led promotions for clients ranging from airlines to spirits, we have seen tremendous responses when we execute well-crafted, smartly-targeted promotions. Adding in the stopping power of strong entertainment properties most always enhances the effort. Relative to Target’s overall holiday spend, I would guess that their digital investment is modest and will likely see an ROI far outstripping other media. Lastly, the emotional connection that a good digitally-driven interactive promotion can deliver is not to be overlooked — if you want to create rich guest engagement and loyalty I can think of no better place to play.

Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly
8 years ago

This is where it starts: “That’s where our consumer is,” Jeff Jones, CMO of Target. Toy shoppers. Toy shoppers = folks with kids older than 16.

Those folks are heavy users of digital content. So an updated channel balance makes sense.

Retail creates loyalty at holiday when items are in stock, shoppers have them in time and they feel it is a great deal. Shopping the balance of the year does not necessarily have those same criteria for success. Gift shopping, sure. But in other categories, not so much.

Flipped around: retailers can make holiday when the other gift-giving occasions are optimized. Victory in May and June can drive success at holiday.

Holiday is an odd time of the year. November and December are huge and can make a year. The buying behavior is significantly different from the balance of the calendar.

As we like to say, “Retail ain’t for sissies!”

Craig Sundstrom
Craig Sundstrom
8 years ago

If I understand their strategy correctly, “cross platform” seems like the more apt description, in that TV and pre-print ads (presumably) are pointing people to the digital sites. So the exact breakdown of X% digital seems a little misleading (and irrelevant). All the parts are necessary for it to work together.

Who am I to question it … but semi-oldsters like myself, who grew up in an era when ad campaigns appeared on TV shows that counted their market share above 50%, or appeared in newspapers that reached a similar percentage of households, may have trouble adjusting to this smaller share, “boutiquey” approach.

Karen S. Herman
Karen S. Herman
8 years ago

I do like the transparency of this interactive holiday campaign that grooms shoppers through online media and I think it is a smart way to work out how Target best wants to combine physical and digital marketing in a way that becomes comfortable for their customers.

As a designer of disruptive retail, I especially like the “Target Wonderland Pop-Up” they will open to the public On Dec. 9 in New York City.

Combining a magical toy store and Pop Up Art exhibit with the holiday toys from the Holiday Odyssey campaign, brought to life digitally, for children and adults to experience and explore, is brilliant.

Target is bringing their marketing campaign to life and giving it dimension. It really isn’t about product or selling anything, which might happen, but it is more about the excitement it can generate and giving visitors a peek at the future of retail.

This is disruptive retail and perfect use of a Pop-Up Retail strategy.