TBWA\C\D Adapts Coleman’s Campaign for Kmart

Animated blue lights continue to play a starring role in TBWA\Chiat\Day’s latest effort for Kmart—a nine-spot holiday campaign that focuses on brand-name products and their prices.

The ad formula—animation that is backed by music, with an emphasis on value—was created by Don Coleman Advertising, Southfield, Mich., another Kmart shop. This time, however, the spots are even more retail-driven because they focus on the prices of featured products, such as a Samsung DVD player and an RCA boom box.

It’s the New York shop’s first full campaign for the client since April, when it launched a broader branding effort under the theme, “The blue light is back.”

One new spot shows the blue lights in Santa hats, scampering down a Kmart aisle and reducing prices to the tune of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Another spot, set to “Good King Wen ces las,” shows blue lights riding tricycles.

At the end of each ad, the lights bound onto a Christ mas tree and a voiceover says, “This holiday season at Kmart, low prices are our gift to you.”

The blue lights are icons that “essentially represent that value message,” explained Steve Feuling, svp of marketing at Kmart in Troy, Mich. Added Carl Johnson, president of TBWA\C\D: “The single most important thing we can do for Kmart is drive their retail business in the fourth quarter.”

The campaign was set to break last night and will run through Christmas Eve. A budget was not disclosed, but Kmart spent about $50 million in measured media on TV and radio during the same period last year, according to CMR.

TBWA\C\D han dles creative duties on the broadcast portion of the account, and it shares media duties with Omnicom sister shop OMD.