March 29, 2024

Advertising: Calendar Says October; Retailers Say It’s Christmas

The idea that holiday marketing efforts would get under way in earnest before Thanksgiving was once startling. But in recent years, “Christmas creep” has become standard operating procedure, leading to jokes like Stephen Colbert’s last week on Twitter: “Halloween is right around the corner. You can tell because all the stores are decked out for Christmas.”

One company, which specializes in online coupons, is spoofing the phenomenon. RetailMeNot, a Web site operated by WhaleShark Media, is running a campaign saluting “OctoNovemCember,” which features a hybrid holiday character called Pumpkin-Headed Turkey Claus that has its own Twitter feed.

The uncertain economy has been a major reason that holiday ads are arriving early the last several years. Retailers sought to get cash registers ringing as soon as they could, regardless of tradition. As it turned out, many consumers welcomed a longer Christmas shopping season, seeing the sales prices as a way to help stretch their gift budgets.

So even as surveys suggest consumers are growing more confident about the economy, campaigns for this holiday season are still playing up bargains. For instance, Target, which seems to be the first big retailer to have started running Christmas commercials, is concluding them with this promise on-screen: “Dream big. Save bigger.” The spots, which began appearing three weeks ago, are by 72andSunny in Los Angeles, part of MDC Partners.

Toys “R” Us, which started its holiday campaign on Sunday, also is being aggressive on sales. The 2012 edition of its holiday catalog, called the Great Big Toys “R” Us Book, begins with two pages of coupons with discounts as high as $60 off certain Power Wheels toys.

“We’re very optimistic about the holiday,” said Peter Reiner, senior vice president for marketing at Toys “R” Us.

“We’re concentrating on what makes us special, letting consumers know there is a difference,” he added, “and if you want to make sure you get the right toy, there’s really only one place to go.”

That is underlined by the theme of the 2012 campaign: “Why shop anywhere else for toys? Why?”

In commercials by the Chicago agency the Escape Pod, children play the parts of television news reporters and anchors at a make-believe station with the call letters TRU, delivering pitches like “All the toys, all the time” in newscast style.

In one spot, which will run in social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the youngsters speak lines that sound familiar: They are from the lyrics to the longtime Toys “R” Us jingle.

“For kids, the new toys are the biggest news of the year,” said Vinny Warren, creative director at the Escape Pod, “so we present it as news.”

“The idea is to get on with the show and tell them what Toys ‘R’ Us has,” he added. “We’re delivering the offers in a way that’s direct and interruptive but, hopefully, charming.”

Wayfair, which sells products like furniture and home accessories online, said it would start its Christmas campaign on Thursday. A humorous television commercial, created internally, is focused on the variety of merchandise at wayfair.com, then concludes with the words “Holiday supersale starts now, up to 60 percent off.”

“Consumers care about selection and value,” said Niraj Shah, chief executive at Wayfair. “We think this will catch their attention and work for us.”

Although “it’s a little hard to say” if customer attitudes about the economy are improving, “we’ve been consistently growing,” he added. “It seems we’re on track for a really good holiday season.”

Not all Christmas campaigns will encourage bargain hunters. For example, an effort for Dell by YR New York is more high-minded, carrying the theme “Inspired gifting.”

In a television commercial, a love-struck boy named Billy uses Dell products to create a gift for an astronomy-minded girl named Charlotte. And in a print ad, a young photography fan named Maxine gets “the perfect gift,” a Dell Inspiron 14z Ultrabook with photo-editing software.

“Our customers want holiday shopping simplified, but they also want to give gifts that will be remembered and inspire loved ones,” said Fara Howard, executive director for North American consumer and small-office marketing at Dell.

An element of the “Inspired gifting” campaign that is to begin on Saturday, created by the Buzz Marketing Group in Philadelphia, is centered on the “#Inspire 100,” whom Dell describes as 100 “influencers” in fields like education, philanthropy and entrepreneurship. They include the actor Edward Norton; Adam Braun, the founder of Pencils of Promise; and the fashion designer Rachel Roy.

“It is all about creating a conversation with consumers, not just pushing a deal or discount,” said Tina Wells, chief executive at Buzz Marketing.

And the Sears division of Sears Holdings plans to start running a commercial on Thursday that is devoted to the depth of selection of home appliances at its stores rather than sale prices.

The humorous spot, by McGarryBowen, is styled like a movie trailer for a romantic comedy and promotes what the retailer calls “the top 10 advantage.” An announcer declares, “Only Sears carries them all,” referring to the 10 leading appliance brands.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/business/media/calendar-says-october-retailers-say-its-christmas.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Critics of Italian Austerity Plan Find Rallying Point

MILAN — In the persistently quarrelsome climate that marks Italian politics, bipartisan agreement tends to be the exception rather than the rule. Unless, it turns out, a city’s patron saint is concerned.

This week, Milan’s council members are set to present a bipartisan motion demanding that the government redact those measures included in the €54 billion austerity package being discussed in Parliament that cancel municipal holidays linked to patron saints. Local lawmakers aim to save the celebration — and citywide holiday — on Dec. 7 of Milan’s revered 4th-century bishop, St. Ambrose.

It’s more than just a civic holiday, “it’s a question of historical roots. St. Ambrose is a reflection of the city of Milan, of its autonomous history vis-à-vis the Roman church,” said Carmela Rozza, the leader of the municipal Democratic Party group.

Today, it is a secular, as much as a religious, celebration. La Scala Opera Theater, for example, schedules its much-vaunted season premiere to coincide with St. Ambrose. “It’s a very important day for the city,” Ms. Rozza said, adding that the city benefited economically as well. Stores remain open during what is essentially the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

The cancellation of patron saint holidays was one of several austerity measures drafted by the Italian government this summer to appease skittish markets and the European Central Bank after it demanded greater fiscal responsibility in balancing the country’s budget. In the draft of the package that was approved by the Senate last week, all patron saint holidays — save for June 29th, the day commemorating saints Peter and Paul, the patrons of Rome — would be celebrated on the closest Sunday.

The intent is to increase productivity by reducing opportunities for long weekends, which can often last four or five days, depending on which weekday the festivity falls.

An early draft of the austerity package had also canceled nonreligious holidays, like April 25, which marks Italy’s liberation by Allied troops in World War II, or May 1st, International Workers’ Day, but these were reintroduced after widespread protests.

That concession — one of many on other fronts — underscores the repeated difficulties the government has faced in drafting its austerity budget. Internal squabbling and external pressures had a significant impact on various measures in the package.

During a telephone call to a television program Monday, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi defended his austerity package and said he had “performed a miracle” by presenting the package just four days after the European Central Bank had called on Italy to pass stricter measures than those it adopted this summer.

On Tuesday, Mr. Berlusconi is scheduled to meet with the E.U. president, Herman Van Rompuy, and the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, to discuss the package. The trip, he said, was necessary so Italy could “reassure our counterparts in Europe” on his majority’s commitment to passing the measures.

He said the lower house would give its approval to the plan this week, probably by Wednesday, and he ruled out that changes would be made to the draft under discussion. He is likely to call a confidence vote, as he did in the Senate.

But that is unlikely to quell local protests over the festivities.

“With all due respect to the government and its decisions, I am a bit perplexed,” said Bishop Erminio De Scalzi, the abbot of the Basilica of St. Ambrose, who noted that the government had made a unilateral decision without consulting the city, the church, “or taking our historical identity into account.”

He conceded that Italy was in a “sad period economically,” but he added, “I don’t think you’re going to resolve the problem by canceling a patron saint.” In Milan, the festivities for St. Ambrose “bring tourism,” he said.

The Milanese are not alone in their anger. Protests against the cancelation of the saint day have been heard in several cities, most notably Naples, where the patron saint — San Gennaro, or St. Januarius — is passionately revered. For hundreds of years, Neapolitans have placed great store in a miracle — the liquefaction of the substance that the faithful believe to be the saint’s blood — which takes place three times a year, in December, May and on Sept. 19, coinciding with his feast day.

“I can’t say: “San Genna’ do the miracle on Sunday,” because it is an event that coincides with his feast day, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, the archbishop of Naples, told the news agency Ansa.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/business/global/critics-of-italian-austerity-plan-find-rallying-point.html?partner=rss&emc=rss