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For Super Bowl, Target Helps Minneapolis Show Off Its 'Bold North'

Ice sculptures. Prince tributes. Driverless shuttles and a zip line across the Mississippi. Idina Menzel belting out the Frozen theme song, and the NFL Gospel. Minnesota is pulling out all the stops for the Super Bowl, and marketers are trying hard to build brand awareness among the 1 million-plus visitors expected to come through town in what has evolved into a 10-day festival to celebrate the “Bold North.”

“We wanted everything we do to be as authentic to the Target brand as possible,” says Joshua Thomas, a spokesperson for the Minneapolis-based retailer. “We’re known for our collaboration with designers, so we partnered with Eric Dayton, the founder of Askov Finlayson, the outdoor clothing manufacturer for a new collection that really embraces this idea of the North. We’re not the Midwest, and we’re not a flyover state—it’s a culture that’s unique to us.”

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Target has also transformed its Target Plaza Commons space into the Bullseye Lodge. Visitors can take a picture playing on a snow swing, have their photograph digitally imprinted on a marshmallow or try curling. There’s a Mountain Dew Ice Lounge with ice furniture, a Mars Candy Shop and the chance to snack on new Doritos and Skittles flavors in the Fire Lounge.

“There’s the chance to videotape your own end-zone dance and have it broadcast on the top of our headquarters,” he tells Marketing Daily. “It’s all family friendly, and it’s all free.”

He says the lodge has seen upwards of 20,000 visitors per day, and while it’s hard to find a comparison, “we’ll be watching social media and earned media to see how we fare.”

And Hallmark, based in Kansas City, Mo., and a member of the 29-company Minnesota Host Committee for Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis, is putting on the cat, letting fans experience the Hallmark Channel’s Kitten Bowl and pet adoption event first hand. It’s also inviting visitors into its 24-foot high Hallmark Touchdown Moment Snow Globe, letting fans post their #TouchdownMoment.

And it’s set up a Valentine’s Day pop-up shop that’s wooing fans in to send free cards and sip hot chocolate.

Automaker Genesis is using the opportunity to get better acquainted with fans, and says it’s welcoming as many as 125,000 people to the Minneapolis Convention Center, with a large display of the Genesis G80, G80 Sport and G90 sedans. Former players and Hall of Fame inductees have been on hand for autographs. And on Super Bowl Sunday, it is hosting more than 6,000 VIP Super Bowl ticket holders at the historical Armory.

1 comment about "For Super Bowl, Target Helps Minneapolis Show Off Its 'Bold North'".
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  1. Katie Hayes from MCM Services Group, February 1, 2018 at 11:58 a.m.

    idina menzel, not mendez.

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