And they’re off…
With the day after Halloween typically marking the unofficial start of the frenzied holiday marketing season, retailer Zellers is quickly out of the blocks with a Facebook initiative called Zellers’ Festive Finale.
Created by Toronto agency John St., the “Festive Finale” is inviting consumers to determine everything from what money-saving coupons it will offer, to its in-store music–as well as create a national radio spot–via its Facebook page.
The exclusive reliance on social media is a marked departure for Zellers, which has traditionally leaned heavily on TV advertising for its holiday marketing.
But this is no ordinary holiday period for the 79-year-old retailer, however. Earlier this year, U.S. retail giant Target paid $1.8 billion to acquire the leases of most Zellers stores, with the intention of converting them to the Target name beginning in 2013. Zellers will begin closing the majority of its 273 locations across the country next year.
Debbie Ford, senior vice-president of marketing for Zellers, said the “Festive Finale” campaign is a hybrid of several ideas that were presented to the retailer by John St., which was working from a mandate to create a fun, engaging, social media-led campaign.
“We had an objective of engaging with our customers in a fun and creative way, building new customer engagement, and ultimately driving more in-store traffic and creating something unique,” said Ford.
Known internally as “Power to the people,” the marketing program uses fictional Zellers employees who invite the public to help play a role in selecting its holiday initiatives.
Rather than pretend that it’s business as usual, Zellers is being candid with its customers about the imminent changes. An introductory video shows the “executive managing director of Zellers” packing his personal items into a box in advance of the store’s takeover by what he describes as a “huge American retailer that shall remain nameless – let’s just say they’re easy to spot.”
In between packing items – including something that looks suspiciously like lunch-meat – the man informs viewers that with the imminent takeover, the pressure is off Zellers management (“seriously, I haven’t worn pants to work in a week”) and says that executives are leaving early and have decided to let customers make the decisions about its last holiday sale.
“We thought it was a very unique opportunity to poke fun at ourselves and the fact that many of our leases have been bought out by Target, and celebrate that fact in a very different way,” said Ford.
Visitors to the Facebook page are invited to click on three tabs to help determine the company’s holiday initiatives. One tab, “Set the Sale,” invites Facebook users to vote for one of three money-saving coupons, while the “Pick the Playlist” tab invites users to choose from among 10 musical selections ranging from “Holiday Pop” and “Classic Christmas” to “Latin Mariachi” and “Smooth Jazz” that will comprise the in-store playlist.
Both tabs are accompanied by a quirky video featuring a Zellers “employee,” including the store manager “Carole” and a cashier named “Jason” – the latter informing viewers that he will smother himself with a Zeddy doll if he has to endure the same holiday music again.
A third tab, “Record the Radio,” lets users record their own radio commercial, with the winning entries being used to promote upcoming “Moonlight Madness” events at the end of the month and in mid-December.
Zellers is promoting the initiative to its existing Facebook user base – which currently sits at more than 20,500 – in addition to in-store signage and weekly flyer.
Ford said Zellers is enjoying “probably our best” fourth quarter ever, echoing statements made by CEO Mark Foote to The Globe and Mail earlier this week in which he said that the company’s operating profit is “well ahead of expectations” and that the retailer “has performed very well” this year.
