‘Twas the month before Christmas and all through the land, marketers were stirring, creating holiday promotions for their brands.
In a two-part feature, MiC‘s sister publication, strategy magazine, is taking a look at what some of the big players have wrapped into their holiday advertising offensives this year. Today we look at Future Shop and Best Buy, after exploring yesterday what Sears and Zellers are planning for the holidays.
Future Shop
Future Shop wants to set itself up as the number one gift-buying destination this Christmas. Its holiday campaign builds on its fall effort, positioning the brand as a purveyor of technologies that open up a fantastic world of possibilities to build excitement with its customers. Two TV spots are set to launch Nov. 19, one brand-oriented, the other retail-focused, featuring the same fantasy aesthetic as its back-to-school ad, with animated images springing forth from a flyer and a wrapped gift to suggest the imaginative world that Future Shop’s techy presents open up. They will be followed by a Boxing Week ad.
The effort also includes radio ads, and all TV and radio will be translated into Hindi, Punjabi, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic and French for the Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal markets. An online effort includes interactive holiday contests, while a holiday gift guide will be given out in Cineplex theatres and polybagged with magazines including Maclean’s, Chatelaine and En Route.
Cossette developed the creative with Optimum managing PR and Media Experts handling media.
Best Buy
Best Buy, Future Shop’s sister brand, is putting out two humorous new spots for the holidays. They are an evolution of its previous ‘The best gifts get the best reactions’ effort – like a mom presenting her teenage son with the perfect gift, played out via an in-store choreographed dance number.
It’s a positioning that plays to the subtle differences between the Future Shop and Best Buy consumers, with Best Buy targeting a more female-skewed, family-oriented customer base that rates itself a little less comfortable with technology.
The effort gets underway Nov. 12 and also includes a social media component featuring YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Plug-in, the brand’s online community forum, mobile ads and radio. Also part of the mix are yellow holiday to-and-from gift tags handed out to gift buyers in-store, and the ‘Proud Giver Happy Winner Challenge,’ an advent calendar-style contest set to kick off Dec. 1, which features daily challenges for the chance to win $15,000 in electronics and a $5,000 donation to a registered Canadian charity of the winner’s choice.
