Target: Out of this World Ads

Target has installed some animated commercials at subway stations in several cities including San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.



As you can see from the YouTube video above, their commercials are pretty cool and reminiscent of old Super 8 movies with the quick, jumpy pictures and no sound. Nice.

Target outspends Wal-Mart in marketing by about $100 million (according to 2004 figures from Ad Age). It shows when seeing creative applications like these.

Wal-Mart is also pushing ahead with its marketing. The much-maligned retailer is girding up its in-store TV network to serve up more content and, of course, ads (not just its own). According to USA Today, Wal-Mart TV has more than 125,000 screens in about 3,100 of Wal-Mart's 4,022 U.S. stores and a potential audience of more than 127 million shoppers per week.

Yeah, according to WWD, 84 percent of the U.S. population visits one of the retailer's stores each year. Wal-Mart wants to entertain them so they might stay awhile and make their stores much more than just a shopping destination.

Target has to be creative considering those numbers. Target has to outspend to reach all of the customers they know will wind up shopping a Wal-Mart at one point or another. Does that sound odd? Consider this—the top 10 retailers reported $488 billion in 2004 sales. Wal-Mart sales made up more than half of this number, with $285 billion. These numbers make Target’s marketing accomplishments that much more impressive.

So, what will the next chapter in the story bring consumers?