• by Laurie Petersen , December 29, 2006

In its latest New York City-based event marketing campaign, Target is taking over the legendary New Year's Eve ball-dropping ceremony.

Some 30,000 Times Square revelers along Seventh Ave. and Broadway will receive pairs of 3D glasses designed to transform the ceremony's fireworks into Target bull's-eyes, and make it appear that the retail giant's logo is emerging from the 1,070-pound ball as it drops.

It's all part of the Target Countdown Celebration. Starting each hour, from 7-11 p.m., several tons of "word-fetti" will drop inscribed with such goodwill messages for 2007 as: "peace," "play," "cheer," "celebrate" and "hope."

According to Countdown Entertainment and Times Square Alliance, which co-produce New Year's Eve in Times Square, the event attracts 1 million people on-site, and through televised coverage, reaches another 100 million in the U.S. and 1 billion around the world.

Target, which has yet to open a retail store in Manhattan, has made New York City center stage for event-based marketing this holiday. During Thanksgiving week, performance artist David Blaine escaped from a spinning gyroscope above West 46th Street, as part of a promotion of the holiday Two-Day sale.

That countdown, in which Blaine had to escape within a certain time period, was the centerpiece for television, print and Web-based advertising.