Campaign Spotlight

Shopping District Tries Soft Selling for Holidays

The theme of the campaign, with a budget estimated in the low hundred thousands of dollars, is "Find the reason for the season at Cherry Creek North." The campaign is the first work for the shopping district by Cultivator. It includes radio commercials, print advertisements, signs on the backs of buses, banners hanging from street signs, posters in merchants' windows, postcards mailed to local residents, lapel buttons and even yard signs on neighborhood lawns


By STUART ELLIOTT
Story from The New York Times
(Published: December 8, 2008)


Until recently, the prime directive of American consumerism seemed to be "When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping." Now that things are truly tough, the only places shoppers seem to be going are to Wal-Mart or their own closets, digging out things they have never worn or used. So where does that leave a local shopping district in the weeks before Christmas? Willing to try an unusual campaign that plays up seasonal rather than commercial considerations.

The campaign is for Cherry Creek North, a business improvement district southeast of downtown Denver that is composed of 16 blocks of 320 stores, shops, galleries and restaurants. The campaign, by a Denver agency called Cultivator Advertising and Design, carries the title "The Yuletide Project." The ads do not suggest gifts to buy but rather offer fun - and free - holiday-inspired activities to pursue, which are numbered as if on a to-do list. Some ideas are sensible, some silly, others offbeat.

Among them are these: "Change your ring tone to your favorite holiday tune," "Play holiday music in your car with the windows down," "Invite a crowd of people to catch snowflakes on their tongues," "Carol with a stranger," "Make a snow angel in a parking lot (Don't get run over!)," "Act out a scene from your favorite holiday movie," "Stick a holiday bow on someone's back" and "Write a holiday greeting on a snow-covered car window."

The theme of the campaign, with a budget estimated in the low hundred thousands of dollars, is "Find the reason for the season at Cherry Creek North." The campaign is the first work for the shopping district by Cultivator. It includes radio commercials, print advertisements, signs on the backs of buses, banners hanging from street signs, posters in merchants' windows, postcards mailed to local residents, lapel buttons and even yard signs on neighborhood lawns.

The campaign, which also appears on the shopping district's Web site , is reinforced with more than 20 events in and around the stores that invoke holiday traditions: visits by carolers, candlelit evening hours, giveaways of eggnog and cookies and even hayrides. "We've never been a district for the 'Come on down' hard sell," says Christina Brickley, marketing and communications director at Cherry Creek North, and plans were under way for a reprise of previous ads with an upscale look: "lots of white space and a simple tag line about the holidays."

But last month, after the financial crisis began, "we decided to take a different path," she adds, because "we didn't think the luxury, glossy, pretty image would be compelling and thought it might be a little gluttonish."

"We sat down with Cultivator and talked about what is the essence of the holidays," Ms. Brickley says, "what do people really want to do."

Those discussions reminded her of her childhood visits to see the holiday windows at Marshall Field's in Chicago, which led to these thoughts: "Just because it's a down economy doesn't mean we have to be down. My kids still want to celebrate the holiday season." That inspired the concept of "The Yuletide Project," which Ms. Brickley says "positions ourselves as the center of holiday cheer, not holiday fear."

That approach is demonstrated by the text of the print ads. "There's yuletide joy aplenty all over Cherry Creek North," one ad begins, then continues: "Caroling. Decorated windows. Every trip here unveils more Yuletide Project excitement." The goal is "to break out of the clutter of typical holiday advertising and marketing," says Scott Coe, a partner at Cultivator. "When the economy started to falter, that's when we decided to make the campaign more about the experience of the season," he adds, "instead of bragging about all the different shops and shopping."

The campaign "gives permission to people to come down and experience the holidays" at Cherry Creek North, Mr. Coe says, without feeling they must "buy something." "We wanted to brand the district: 'If there's a place to go get into the spirit of the season, this is it,'" he adds, while avoiding pointed appeals like "Come here to shop because we have discounts on everything."

"I think people do want to embrace the season," Mr. Coe says, despite the dire economic news. "Whether you spend money on presents or not, there are things that make it a special season," he adds, "this year, probably even more so." Christmas is "a season of hope," Mr. Coe says, "and it always has been." And although "shopping plays a role in the holiday," he adds, "there's a big part of the season that's not about buying things."

Holiday cuteness is an affliction that strikes many marketers this time of the year. Mr. Coe says the intent was to make the campaign light-hearted without being too coy or gooey. "Whimsy is a good word" for the tone, he says. "There are little elements that say: 'Let's have fun. Let's celebrate the holidays and be excited for the season.' "

An example of that is an event that took place on Nov. 24, intended to kick off the shopping season at Cherry Creek North. Ms. Brickley calls it "White Monday," an alternative to the so-called Black Friday shopping sprees on the day after Thanksgiving. "The merchants cover their windows with white paper," Ms. Brickley says, "and at 4 o'clock everyone takes the white paper off." "We were pretty happy with the day after Thanksgiving."

"Flat is the new up, and we seem to be pretty flat right now," she adds, as slackening demand for merchandise like clothing is offset by demand for merchandise like pillows, chairs and other home furnishings.


(Published: 10.12.2008.)