Sears Canada has partnered with Astral RadioPlus on a massive radio promotion for its first-ever National Great Day.
The event, running Dec. 15, includes live remotes from four markets (Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Hamilton), contests and 30-second spots running across Astral’s 84 radio stations and accompanying websites.
It is the first time that Astral has used all of its radio stations for a single promotion, said Dean Rutherford, vice-president and general manager of Astral RadioPlus in Toronto. Astral’s stations reach an estimated 15.1 million Canadians in a typical day.
Astral partnered with Sears and its media agency Vizeum Canada to create and implement the program in just four days. “This showcases agility of radio and its ability to answer a last-minute need at this scale,” said Rutherford.
The fully customized program also includes market-specific 30-second spots developed by Astral’s creative services department.
The total value of the campaign is slightly more than $1 million.
The promotion ties in with Sears’ new “Make Every Day a Great Day” positioning created by agency The Unitas Reputation Agency.
Sears is currently in the midst of a three-year turnaround plan being engineered by president and CEO Calvin McDonald.
The department store chain has seen sales drop significantly in recent years, and the impending arrival of U.S. retail giant Target is expected to be another significant hurdle.
In a recent study of 1,000 Canadian consumers conducted by Toronto-based Solutions Research Group, 55% of Sears’ regular customers said they will “definitely” shop at Target when it arrives in Canada next spring. That was the highest number among Canada’s incumbent retailers.
Sears Canada recently reported losses of $21.9 million for the 13-week period ending Oct. 27 compared with a net loss of $44.1 million in the year-earlier period. Total revenues for the period were $1.04 billion, down from $1.11 million a year earlier. Same store sales decreased 5.7%.
