“Believing” in engagement.
The Macy’s brand has been synonymous with the holiday season since 1924, the year of the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Over the past three years, Macy’s has continued its holiday marketing with its “Believe” advertising campaign, inspired by a little girl named Virginia who, in 1897, wrote a letter to the editor of The New York Sun asking if Santa truly existed.
This year, Macy’s is promoting the campaign with print, mobile, and online advertisements. The company also created a Virginia balloon for this year’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I heard about the Virginia story while watching the parade, and recently, I came across a “Believe” print ad featuring the campaign website. The ad encouraged customers to visit the site with their children, have them write letters to Santa, and mail the letters at a Macy’s location. For every letter Macy’s receives, Macy’s will donate a dollar to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, up to $1,000,000.
Upon visiting the site, I was enchanted and extremely impressed with its creativity and engaging content. I probably will not be writing a letter to Santa this Christmas, but I am sure grown-ups will have a wonderful time visiting this site with children and interacting with Virginia and her friends. Many companies encourage customers to visit their websites in their ads, but few provide any good reasons to do so. The Macy’s site, however, contains plenty of added value for customers, featuring an activity guide for educators, stationery for letters to Santa, and the “Believe-O-Magic” application, which allows users to magically bring Virginia and her friends to life, take photos with them, and share them with their friends via Facebook, e-mail, and other social media sites.
The “Believe” site not only entertains; it creates a sales cycle that brings people into Macy’s stores and encourages them to share information about the brand with their social networks. Customers must visit Macy’s in order to mail their letters to Santa or print their photos and, obviously, getting people in the doors (or to the website) is the first step to selling your products. The site also features a “Macy’s Gift Guide” tab that directs customers to its e-commerce site. This “guide” is essentially advertising disguised as a helpful resource for customers who need ideas this holiday for their children, significant others, and friends. Customers who visit the website benefit from receiving gift ideas, fun activities, and the knowledge that their letter-writing efforts are going to a good cause. Macy’s benefits by exposing people to its products and increasing traffic to stores.
Macy’s “Believe” campaign is a first-rate example of how companies can gratify and engage consumers while fulfilling their marketing goals. The best advertising does not feel like advertising at all – and Macy’s demonstrates that the most effective way to expose people to your products and messaging is to give them something valuable in return. And that’s a principle all organizations can “believe” in.
Tagged with Believe, Christmas, Macy's, Make a Wish Foundation