National Consumer Promotion: Budget $1-5 Million

April 6, 2009

Kmart wanted a splashy promotion to urge women to reconsider its apparel brands and
establish a chic image. Teaming with Draftfcb, Kmart developed a two-pronged “Style Showoff” program to promote its new line of fashions for 2008.

In February, a casting call went out to find the first four style-conscious women to be featured in a national ad campaign—for an unknown company.  Blind stores with makeshift runways were set up in high-traffic malls in New York and Los Angeles. A guerrilla marketing effort using street chalk and flyers augmented radio and local classified ads to spread word of the event.  Auditioning women modeled outfits they put together from racks of unlabeled Kmart clothes and accessories, while a panel of judges asked questions, including in what stores the women might expect to find these clothes.

Notably, not a single participant answered Kmart. When the identity of the retailer was revealed, the candid reaction shots provided some choice PR material. 

A national contest launched the following month to locate the fifth and final Style Showoff. Consumers were asked to upload a photo wearing an outfit that embodied their personal style and submit a style statement of 100 words or less. Online and offline ads, along with a microsite (kmart.com/style), promoted the contest and the new fashions, resulting in 214 percent more entries than planned.

The program created a considerable amount of buzz, with over 3.5 million media impressions, as well as a snazzy sales lift for Kmart. Its apparel divisions outperformed the chain by 2.9 percent and key categories within women’s fashion performed an average of 22 percent better during the promotional period.



In “Soundcheck,” Unilever delivered Wal-Mart a cross-channel marketing vehicle whose tie-in with top music artists achieved several important objectives. Namely, the promotion increased visibility for many of Unilever’s personal care brands and helped offset a massive sales decline in Wal-Mart’s $1.5 billion CD category, while increasing awareness of the retailer’s digital downloads among traditionally resistant (i.e., younger) Walmart.com consumers.

Partnering with music industry experts at Lunchbox, Unilever selected artists like Jennifer Hudson and Miley Cyrus, creating original content for Walmart.com in the form of exclusive interviews, online performances and special concerts. Video clips featured artist segments “presented by” brands such as Dove, Degree Girl and Axe. A social media outreach effort and banner ads on Walmart.com supported the program, while in-store merchandising using the artists’ likeness continued the push offline.

Check this: Soundcheck generated, on average, more than a 20 percent lift in digital and physical/retail sales of artists featured in the program. Unilever notched $26 million in incremental sales of featured brands thanks to the promotion. Highlights from brand impact surveys included a 40 percent increase in awareness of the new Degree Girl line, a 28 percent increase in purchase intent for Axe and a 15 point increase in an equity measure for Dove.


To increase awareness among women for the Acadia crossover, GMC partnered with Ellen DeGeneres on a month-long branded entertainment promotion leading up to the 2008 Academy Awards. The elite GM truck brand offered several tantalizing giveaways to fans of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.  Four lucky winners took a cross-country road trip in an Acadia, filmed to appear in highlights on the show. Each week in February, the host gave away an Acadia to a deserving audience member. Fans could enter a car-giveaway contest online. Total integration on the show (60 minutes) doubled initial estimates, and unaided brand awareness jumped 13 percent among Ellen show viewers.