Target’s Radio Campaign is a Big Winner
This week, Media Plan of the Year 2010 winners were announced by Mediaweek magazine. Recognized in the $1-$10 Million category for Radio was Haworth Media’s highly-effective campaign for Target Stores.
Target’s winning Media Plan of the Year harnessed the unique power of on-air personalities to enhance the workhorse of retail advertising: the venerable newspaper circular.
Developed by Minneapolis-based Haworth Media, the Radio campaign connected the two tried-and-true advertising tools, giving Target’s promotions a personal touch during last year’s make-or-break holiday season.
Every Monday from Nov. 30 to Dec. 21, more than 100 morning Radio personalities in 24 top markets, such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, and Portland, Ore., voiced live reads to promote Target’s weekly circular. The live reads were placed in the first position of the commercial pod for a seamless break between programming and advertising. In addition to the endorsements, Target also overlaid a traditional national spot Radio schedule.
At a time when just about every retailer on the planet was using coupons and circulars to generate more sales and reach the consumer focused on value, Target’s personality-driven approach stood out and delivered. Sales growth was up 2.1 percent from the 2008 holiday season on a 2.5 percent increase in store traffic.
“Radio was the perfect match for our hardest working vehicle,” says Shari Schraber, Haworth Media’s associate media director. “It gave us the ability to deliver a credible, customized, local experience. We were able to differentiate (Target) by combining in-program content and local personalities with a value-focused promotion.”
Target and Haworth began discussing last summer how to push the circular to work even harder during the holidays, especially since newspaper circulation had ebbed. “The way people seek out information has evolved as newspaper circulation declines. We wanted to make sure we get the circular into peoples’ hands,” says Heather Cruse, group media director for Haworth.
Target, a brand that depended on visual media, had avoided Radio during the holidays. The idea to work Radio into the holiday strategy, a first for the retailer, surfaced as a result of discussions with the Radio Advertising Bureau, which had been working with Target and Haworth to increase Target’s use of Radio for the past three years. “Our challenge with Radio is often tied to needing visuals for so many of our campaigns,” says Schraber.
To coordinate the campaign, Katz Marketing Solutions put together a calendar of events that was forwarded to 70 adult contemporary and country stations, detailing what needed to be done and by whom. Talent would go to the Target Web site each week, find out what products were highlighted in the circular (which is both available online and in print) and pick one or two products to talk about that would best suit their lifestyle and on-air patter. Target provided talking points for the products. The resulting endorsements were extemporaneous and genuine.
“Personality endorsements are not a new concept, but the way Target used it to reinforce the visual brought a 50-year-old visual component to life,” adds Tammy Greenberg, svp of business development for the RAB, which served as the liaison between Katz and Haworth.
In Portland, on KWJJ-FM, Mike Chase of Mike and Amy talked about getting his 2-year-old Fritz a train table, while Amy Faust talked about how she was going to change her entire holiday theme to add more red.
Susan Wise, morning co-host at Miami’s WLYF-FM, proclaimed she was a professional shopper. “I finally had a day off all to myself. So the first thing I did was go online and check what’s going on at Target.” Her co-host, Jeff Martin, needed to keep up with the Joneses: “All the neighbors are decorating their balconies. I can buy two light sets and get one free.”
That kind of from-the-heart endorsement doesn’t come easily. “It’s a lot more than just running a schedule. There’s a tremendous amount of backroom coordination to pull it off,” says Bob McCurdy, president of Katz Marketing Solutions, which had an eight-person activation team to ensure the campaign went off without a hitch. “But it was all worth it. There’s no finer word of mouth than personalities talking to their listeners.”
For an advertiser, which hadn’t used Radio a lot, the whole prospect of turning over the messaging to on-air personalities was a bit daunting, even scary. “Target holds creative control very closely,” says Haworth’s Cruse. “But they’re getting more comfortable with Radio as we learn that to get the authenticity, Radio is a two-way street. It’s a new avenue that needs to be harnessed.”
Target’s experience with Radio could lead to more dollars in the future.
According to data from Kantar Media, Target has slowly increased its spend in Radio, allocating 6 percent of its traditional media budget, up from 2 percent in ‘07. As a result of ongoing discussions, Target’s Radio ad spend was up 7.2 percent in ‘09, while total ad spend among traditional media slipped 15 percent.
Says Schraber: “This (holiday campaign) was a good step in the right direction that showed us how we can creatively use Radio.”
