Wal-Mart’s 2005 Holiday Campaign Breaks New Ground
An earlier-than-ever start, a fully integrated campaign, and a roster of celebrities position Wal-Mart as a primary destination for holiday shoppers
BENTONVILLE, Ark., Nov. 1, 2005 – In an unprecedented multi-media holiday campaign featuring a roster of celebrities, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is focusing on the theme of helping customers enjoy being home for the holidays. With this year’s campaign, the retailer celebrates a number of “firsts”:
- The first Wal-Mart holiday campaign to begin this early (Nov. 1)
- The first Wal-Mart holiday campaign to feature celebrities
- The first Wal-Mart holiday campaign to be integrated across all media channels and in-store signage.
"We’re responding to our customers with an assertive, new-style marketing approach to ensure that they know we’re the place to shop for the widest variety of gifts at the best value this holiday season,” says John Fleming, Wal-Mart’s chief marketing officer. “This campaign corresponds to our overall objective of being more relevant to the broad range of customers who shop in our stores. We expect our focus on familiar celebrities who are enjoying themselves at home with family and friends to resonate well with everyone who is looking forward to being home for the holidays this year.”
Based on the theme “Home for the Holidays,” Wal-Mart’s holiday campaign celebrates the holiday style of some of Wal-Mart customers’ favorite celebrities, including Garth Brooks, Destiny’s Child, Martina McBride, Jesse McCartney, and Queen Latifah, each enjoying the holidays at their actual homes. Together with a wide and varied selection of gifts, they are featured across all media channels – print, TV, radio, on-line, and in-store signage.
“For the first time, customers who walk the aisles of Wal-Mart stores or visit Walmart.com will be seeing signage and graphics consistent with the ads they’ve seen in their newspapers or on TV,” said Fleming. “Our campaign is designed to help customers identify this season’s hottest gifts and to make sure that they know they can find them, as well as everything they need for a great holiday, at Wal-Mart.”
The full holiday campaign will feature six 30-second television spots and one 60-second spot, which will run on network and national cable stations and in national syndication and local markets, as well as a two-minute video for video-on-demand, which will be run by various cable providers. Additionally, four print ads are set to run in November and December magazines including In Style; O, The Oprah Magazine; Entertainment Weekly; Redbook; People and Us Weekly. The holiday marketing will showcase three different key gift categories – home décor, electronics and toys – covering a range of price points.
“By starting earlier and building consistent and dynamic messaging around these key categories, we want to show our customers that we have the holiday merchandise they want, when they want it, at the affordable prices they trust from Wal-Mart,” said Fleming. “With a message this strong, we believe people will think of Wal-Mart as their primary holiday shopping destination.”
About Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates Wal-Mart Stores, Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and SAM’S CLUB locations in the United States. The company also operates in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the United Kingdom. The company’s securities are listed on the New York and Pacific stock exchanges under the symbol WMT. More information about Wal-Mart can be found by visiting www.walmartfacts.com. Online merchandise sales are available at www.walmartfacts.com. Online merchandise sales are available at www.walmart.com.
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