• by Steve McClellan , November 8, 2011

McCann Detroit is using its own office to create a new media channel for client Aldi, the discount food and grocery chain.

The Interpublic Group shop has created a pop-up holiday store in the cavernous lobby of the building that houses its Detroit operation. McCann’s Detroit office, actually located in nearby Birmingham, MI, once housed a Jacobson’s Department Store that operated for more than 160 years before shuttering in 2002.

It’s the first time the client has used the pop-up store vehicle as a marketing technique. The store is being used to kick off the client’s new holiday ad campaign, “The Joy of Saving. The Joy of Giving.”

The Aldi pop-up store, which was unveiled Nov. 7, is open to the public and to the 550-plus McCann Worldgroup tenants in the building for one week only. It is being staffed by agency volunteers. The store showcases some of Aldi’s holiday products and its 2011 Holiday Catalog. Free samples of products -- including Mosher Roth Truffles and Café Bistro Butter Spekulatius cookies -- will be available each day.

In the spirit of giving, the food on the shelves, which is not for sale, is being donated to the local Gleaners Food Bank at the end of the week. The Aldi Holiday campaign will include newspaper, radio, online and in-store advertising. The client’s home page is already adorned with “Joy of Saving Joy of Giving” messaging. Aldi (an acronym for Albrecht Discount) is based in Germany and began U.S. operations in 1976. It now has 1,000 stores here in 31 states.