Target Puts Its Advertising on the 'Run'

Target has been trickling out pieces of a new ad campaign that is set for full-scale launch at the end of March.Spotlighting the grocery side of the store to promote everything from carrots to mouthwash to laundry detergent, the effort's central construct is the “Target Run,” a fill-in trip to pick up essentials. It serves as a follow-up to the retailer's recent "Everyday Collection" campaign. (See Related Search.)Target recently sent out a direct mailer activating the theme for spring cleaning. Inviting consumers to “Make an I’m-gonna-need-a-glove-for-that run,” the mailer delivers a coupon providing $5 off a $30 grocery purchase as well as another $16.75 in coupons for brands including private label Market Pantry, Mondelez International’s Nabisco Wheat Thins, Kellogg Co.’s Kashi, Procter & Gamble’s Gain, SC Johnson’s Windex and Johnson & Johnson’s Listerine. Another message in the mailer states, “Whatever spring cleaning throws your way, there’s a #TargetRun for that.”On March 2, Target distributed a stand-alone insert in Sunday newspapers that announced, "Whatever you've got going on, there's a #TargetRun for that." Juxtaposing a "no-one's-home-so-I'm-not-cooking run" with an "everyone's-home-and-they're-real-hungry run," the insert spotlighted brands including Kellogg's Special K, AgroFarma Brands' Chobani, Pinnacle Foods' Birds Eye, General Mills' Betty Crocker and Annie's Inc.'s flagship. On target.com, top-of-page banner ads and displays ads throughout the website have linked to a themed landing page since Feb. 15, according to OASIS (the Path to Purchase Institute's digital ad-tracking service). Headlined with a “Make a tip-off’s-in-twenty run” message to tap into the excitement around college basketball “March Madness,” the purchase-enabled page spotlights brands such as Mills' Pillsbury and Nature Valley, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes and Pop-Tarts, and Kraft Foods Group's Maxwell House and Oscar Mayer.The page also links to other “spring essentials” grouped as “eat up,” “pet parents,” “take care” and “clean house.” The landing page for each grouping presents a different Target run, from “Make a feed-my-game-face run” to “Make a hay-fever-conquered run." Banner ads on the pages present links to Target's accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, encouraging visitors to drum up support by using the #TargetRun hashtag to answer questions such as, "Has a #TargetRun every saved the day? Tell us!"In its home state of Minnesota, the retailer also has partnered with the National Hockey League's Minnesota Wild to award home-game tickets through a series of sweepstakes that require entrants to tweet the products they picked up on their Target run. The marketing plan additionally includes outdoor ads. TV spots are scheduled to break March 30, Advertising Age reported. Led by Minneapolis agency Mono, the campaign will run through January 2015.Target postponed a different campaign that had been slated to break during the Olympics. Chief marketing officer Jeff Jones told Ad Age that the campaign — which highlights the retailer’s efforts to be a good corporate citizen — was shelved because it felt “tone deaf” in light of the retailer’s pre-holiday data breach, which compromised the security of 70 million customers’ personal information.Dealing with the breach cost Target $17 million in the fourth quarter, when sales decreased 6.6% to $20.9 billion and comparable-store sales fell 2.5%. In the days leading up to its Dec. 19 acknowledgment of the breach, the retailer attempted to minimize the possible sales impact by implementing dramatic price decreases. According to price data from 360pi (which analyzes some 830 products across eight categories), Target dropped prices by 18% from Dec. 14-17 and another 5% leading up to Christmas. In comparison, Walmart dropped prices by only 5% to 6% during the same time period.In the weeks that followed, public relations and crisis communications completely took over Target’s social media channels, and the retailer halted promotion of its store-brand credit card. That activity has since returned to normal levels, although an investigation into the breach is ongoing.

P2PI MEMBERS

JOIN P2PI

You May Also Like

P&G Runs Spring Cleaning Incentive at Home Depot

Reese's Plays With Dollar General's App