NEW YORK Target Corp. has turned to Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners here to promote its SuperTarget grocery concept with a TV, print and direct mail campaign that shows prominent brand icons flocking to store shelves.
In the effort’s only TV spot, brand icons like Cheetos’ Chester the Cheetah and Gorton’s Fisherman immigrate to “a place where everything is better,” via train, plane and automobile. Sharing a flight to this packaged-foods mecca are Frosted Flakes’ Tony the Tiger and Planter’s Mr. Peanut, who looks dismayed when a stewardess offers him a bag of his own. The Keebler Elves wait restlessly at a bus station, while the Hamburger Helper hand thumbs a ride.
A voiceover adds gravitas to the cavalcade of animated characters by deeply intoning, “And so they came, to a place where everything is better, especially the prices” as a stock boy applies stickers to the characters with a price gun. The ad uses the Minneapolis retailer’s long-running tagline, “Expect more. Pay less.”
By bringing the icons off the food packages and into the living world, the humorous spots communicate that the SuperTarget stores stock brand names at lower prices.
The campaign, which launched regionally Sunday, will also include a series of six full-page ads and direct mail and in-store components that also use the brand icons. The initial print ad shows the characters picking up their baggage at the airport.
Representatives at Kirshenbaum Bond referred questions to the client, which did not return calls.
Spending was undisclosed, but Target, which operates more than 1,000 stores nationwide, spent nearly $520 million on ads last year and almost $220 in the first half of 2003, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMR. Competitor Walmart spent nearly $400 million on ads last year and about $190 million in the first six months of 2003, per TNS Media Intelligence/CMR.
Brand Symbols Populate Target Groceries Effort
