Gap use real reindeer in Christmas promotion

There’s no Donner, no Blitzen and no Rudolph in Gap’s latest social media promotion, but there’s plenty of offers.

The clothing retailer, working with digital agency AKQA, has unleashed an admittedly odd campaign that tracks eight real reindeer (not the flying kind) in a pasture in Lake Crystal, Minn.

The reindeer, which are equipped with GPS, compete in various “contests” including tests for who moves the farthest, fastest, slowest or closest to the North Pole on a particular day. Each one is connected to a different deal. Emma, for instance, will get you 40% off your whole purchase. Chloe will get you all accessories in store for $5 each.

Fans are encouraged to give their preferred reindeer a boost with supported tweets.

Target used hash promotions in it's Christmas advertising

A week and a half before retail’s biggest day of the year, Target has bought the Twitter hashtag #BlackFriday.

The retail giant is using this promoted trend as a way to publicize a daily gift card sweepstakes between now and Saturday, November 27. This Wildfire-powered giveaway has users tweeting about the sweepstakes — tweets that, of course, include the #BlackFriday hashtag. Publicity that publicizes itself is so meta.

Target’s link from Twitter sends users to a promotional page focused on its two-day Black Friday sale. Target is also giving web shoppers special daily deals from this page.

While the hashtag, like any, carries its share of spam, a large number of real users are weighing in on Black Friday shopping plans (or working woes, for those who labor in retail). Target’s ad is a timely and appropriate entry into the ongoing conversation; at the same time, it amplifies the conversation as users jump on the trending topic bandwagon to discuss Black Friday and their holiday wishlists.

Twitter’s promoted trends are the kind of ad inventory that Ev Williams was talking about today at Web 2.0 Summit when he said that brands are demanding more ads than Twitter has available to sell them. In fact, the former Twitter CEO said the supply-demand ratio for ads had become the company’s biggest challenge.



Target itself is no stranger to smart inclusion of social media into its marketing and sales mix. Just yesterday, Target announced a partnership with location startup Shopkick to offer rewards for user checkins; at the end of the summer, the retailer worked with Gilt Groupe, a private-sale network, to promote its designer lines. And earlier this fall, the retailer began selling Facebook credits in stores.

Mashable

Old Navy’s “Booty Reader”

From the sophomoric cauldrons of humor at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, the same agency that brought Burger King’s Shower Babe and the Whopper Sacrifice campaign to the Internet, comes Old Navy’s “Booty Reader” web application, which asks women to upload a shot of their derrières to find the most suitable pair of Old Navy jeans.

Visitors to the microsite are prompted to choose three scenarios in which they would wear the jeans they’re looking for (on a date, lounging at home, to the office on a Casual Friday, etc.), and then to use a web cam or photo so that the app can gauge their body shape. Women who are too uncomfortable (or lazy) to use a photo can choose diagrams to inform the app about their proportions.

Although hundreds upon hundreds of branded apps and magazine articles have taken consumers through the same jeans-fitting process, Old Navy’s app was named in such a way that it is guaranteed to attract press without generating controversy, unlike American Apparel’s Best Bottom campaign [Warning: Explicit]; according to Adweek, the Booty Reader was designed by a team of female creative directors for female shoppers.

Nevertheless, we question whether the app is really “on brand” — both the company’s brick-and-mortar and online stores emphasize its offerings for plus-size and pregnant women, as well as men, infants and children. How many Old Navy shoppers do you know use the word “booty” — or want to engage with a web application with that word in its name?

Lauren Indvik for Mashable

Gap's model search through iphone app

If you’ve ever looked into the windows of a babyGap or GapKids storefront and thought to yourself: “Wow, my child is way prettier than all of these kids photographed in the window front, it’s too bad I’m too lazy to take a quality portrait on my digital camera, and upload it to Gap’s website for its annual babyGap and Gap Kids Casting Call contest,” today is your lucky day — if you own an iPhone, that is.

For the fifth year of its Casting Call campaign, Gap has developed a special iPhone app [iTunes link] to make it easier for parents to enter their 0 to 10-year-olds into the contest, the four winners of which will be featured in the company’s babyGap or GapKids store window advertisements, and other promotional materials. Gap judges will select and fly 20 finalists to San Francisco for a professional photo shoot in mid-November. Fans will be able to vote on the final winners from December 6-20.

Parents can enter their 0-10-year-olds using the mobile app. After registering, you’ll be asked to fill out a short entry form including your child’s name, sex and date of birth, as well as your contact information. You’ll then be prompted to take a photo of your child using your iPhone or to pick one from your existing library, which cannot be more than three months old.

After you’ve entered it’s time to beg your friends to download the app and start voting for your kid; the one with the most votes will receive a $1,000 Gap gift card for receiving the most votes, though s/he will not be flown out to do a photo shoot, unless s/he is also a favorite of the judges. You can then keep track of how many Fan votes your children have garnered under “My Entries,” as well as keep track of how many votes the competition has received in the Gallery section.

In all seriousness, the app is a smart idea that should substantially increase the number of submissions, which numbered more than 1 million last year. Gap has pursued an aggressive digital and mobile marketing strategy as of late, having offered discounts via Foursquare (Foursquare), Loopt, and Groupon all within the last six months.

From: Mashable