Specifically feel good and buy at Best Buy. That's the message of a holiday campaign BBDO has created for the consumer electronics retailer that features true stories about ways that webcams and the
like have touched people's lives. Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris filmed actual Best Buy employees telling heartwarming tales. For example, one is shown teaching a blind man how to use his home
theater system.
Other marketers are accentuating the positive, too, Stephanie Kang reports. Carnival Cruise Lines, for example, brought together thousands of people to play with the
world's largest beach ball and break the world's largest piñata. The tag line: "Fun for All. All for Fun."
"In all this doom and gloom, happiness is the obvious counterpoint
strategy," says Nick Bartle, director of behavioral planning for Omnicom's BBDO North America. It's a tried-and-true strategy in times of trouble, Kang points out, that carries obvious risks:
"Grinning through your ads in a rotten economy when consumers are deeply concerned about their financial future can seem insensitive or obtuse," she writes.
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