One of my colleagues, Andrew, and I were coming back from a meeting on Friday morning in NYC. As we came out of the subway near the shuttle 2 billboards next to each other jumped out at us. Both were from Target. The one on the right had the beautiful face of Christina Aguilera on it letting me (and my fellow strap hangers) know that I could only get her new "Decade of Hits" CD at Target. With all the digital ways of distributing music these days I would say that's quite a coup. The one on the left also had an image of Christina Aguilera, some headphones, the Target logo and the headline "Christina Aguilera. Listen Now." Further down on the ad was a small red box with a spot to plug in a set of headphones and listen to some of the tunes on the new CD. "Plug In Here" read the sign.
Fortunately Andrew had a set of headphones in his bag, plugged in and listened. Silence. The darn thing was busted. This made me think of 3 things:
1. Great use of the medium. I've seen interactive billboards where you point your mobile device at them and you get a text message, a free ring tone, an offer, etc. But never one where you truly interacted with it. Cool.
2. Great brand building for Target and its association with Christina Aguilera. If you like the music and want to buy the CD, guess what? You can only get it at Target. And while you are there you just might walk out with a few other items. Target wins.
3. Everyting matters. I read a wonderful book by marketing guru, Scott Bedbury, called A New Brand World a few years back. One of his points was that "everything matters." Nike could spend a zillion bucks on Michael Jordan, slick commercials, great looking shoes and terrific store displays, but if the salesperson at Sports Authority doesn't know what he/she is talking about or the customer service person on the phone is rude the shopper won't buy the shoes and all that good will and marketing expense is wasted. Same thing here for Target. They got our attention, they engaged us, and we spent a few minutes with the Target (and Christina Aguilera) brand. Then the music device didn't work. Guess what? No sale.
