Shared real world experience – check. Live video – check. Facebook & Social media integration – check. Teaser buzz campaign – check. $150,000 donation to anti-gay governorship candidate – ahhh bugger.
The Target: Kaleidoscopic Fashion Spectacular in New York City at the Standard Hotel, sees Mother N.Y. and Target debuting a massive indoor/outdoor spectacular to promote the store’s fall line of clothing. The event is shared through Ustream video on a Facebook page and pulls together people’s responses and coverage using the hashtag #TGTSpectacular and OpenGraph.
It is a really nice campaign, another example of what I think is the future of Brand Reality Creative: work that combines utility and brand story in a way that effects the real world.
Unfortunately the “community’s shared responses” all over the Facebook page and wider web have nothing to do with the campaign and everything to do with the Target’s donation to Minnesota Forward, a republican group in Target’s home-state of Minnesota, which is a lot less equal rights focused than Target itself.
The campaign has now become a channel for debate and outrage with people a lot less interested in the spectacular 20-minute performance accompanied by an original soundtrack by Squeak E. Clean, aka Sam Spiegel, performed by a 30-piece orchestra and 10-person chorus.
Transparency and consistency online is vital. If your brand and your deeds diverge you will be found out and called out.
Unfortunately for Target and Mother NY this has happened in a big way – just showing that for real people there are a lot more important things than advertising.
