Target Stores is using magic this year to hype its Thanksgiving weekend sale, with a tie-in to the Salvation Army.
Magician David Blaine began the sky-high act yesterday in Times Square, climbing into the shackles of a spinning gyroscope hoisted five stories above the street. Blaine has until early Friday morning to escape the device. He then joins 100 children and their families, chosen by the Salvation Army, on a Target shopping spree at 5 a.m., an hour before the store opens for Target’s 2-Day Sale. Each family gets a $500 Target GiftCard.
“Target wanted to set the holiday shopping season in motion with a thrilling event and only David Blaine can provide that kind of excitement,” said Target VP-Marketing John Remington in a statement. “This is a great way to kick off the Target 2-Day Sale and also continue our important partnership with The Salvation Army.”
Minneapolis-based Target handles promotions in-house. Target’s ad agency, BBDO New York, conceived of the stunt; sister shop Atmosphere BBDO handles the promotional Web site.
For the past two years, Target has employed celebrities in cheeky pre-holiday promotions to build store traffic on Black Friday. Its 2004 Target Wake Up Call let consumers sign up online to be wakened by the celebrity or character of their choice (including Ice-T, Darth Vader, Heidi Klum and a rooster) in time for Target’s 6 a.m. opening. The retailer repeated the promotion last year, adding a new roster of celebs and a tuck-in service: Shoppers registered for an evening phone call of soothing music, sound effects or a bedtime story on Thursday or Friday night.
Meanwhile this week, Wal-Mart Stores is promising eight in-store only deals for the morning of Black Friday, on top of 70 deals that Wal-Mart has already publicized. (Those special offers are part of a series of price cuts that have so far included toys and electronics such as cell phones, digital cameras and high-definition TVs.) Wal-Mart will tout the eight new deals at WalMart.com on Thanksgiving Day; the in-store offers run 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Friday.
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