• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, November 9, 2006

Say goodbye to political spending. With the election behind them, local stations could face a continued loss in revenues, due to a slowdown at the local/regional level in the key retail category.

Federated Department Stores launched its largest national ad campaign ever in September, suggesting Wednesday that it would use this tactic to turn Macy's into a national brand.

Hundreds of stores that once held potent regional brands, such as Marshall Field's and Filene's, have been merged under the Macy's banner. That, in turn, has ushered in the national marketing focus, which threatens to deprive local stations of revenues they counted on, via spending by the regional stores.

Upon announcing the new campaign, which introduces the new 800 Macy's stores with a national footprint, Federated said it would use national broadcast and cable TV and magazines--as well as some local media, including newspapers. But it did not mention local television.

Karen Hoguet, Federated's CFO, said the company plans to employ national advertising carrying both a value message--the type of advertising local stations have traditionally benefited from--as well as a branding focus in the critical fourth quarter.

"We will have strength in marketing to help drive traffic to our stores," Hoguet said on a conference call with analysts to discuss third-quarter results. "The brand launch was very successful."

She did, however, say it would be difficult to gauge the level of an apples-to-apples spending increase next year, since 2007 would mark the first time Federated has backed some 800 stores under the Macy's banner. The parent company acquired about 400 stores from the May company and is re-branding them under the Macy's flag this fall.

Hoguet said the retail giant is well-positioned going into the holiday season, although more needs to be done to drive awareness of the "new Macy's."

National ad spending could increase significantly next year. Federated will realize savings of some $450 million, due to synergies from its 2005 merger with the May department-store operations. The company believes those dollars could be redeployed into purchasing the more expensive, but potentially more effective, national ad time and space.

One of those 2007 efforts will be the first developed by Anne MacDonald, Federated's CMO and president of the Macy's corporate marketing unit. McDonald, who was CMO for Citi's global consumer group until earlier this year, also has experience in marketing at Pizza Hut.