The instrumental to Missy Elliott’s “Go That Dutch” is blaring by your audio system whereas Lindsay Lohan is in your display screen strolling by the halls of North Shore Excessive Faculty. Did you simply transport again to the early 2000s?
No, chances are high you have been simply served Walmart’s newest Black Friday advert.
The film Imply Ladies has been a popular culture traditional since its launch in 2004. Practically 20 years later, Walmart is capitalizing on the movie’s enduring reputation with a Imply Ladies-themed Black Friday marketing campaign.
Walmart’s sequence of advertisements options 5 of the movie’s authentic forged members reprising their roles and even features a cameo from Missy Elliott herself. As an alternative of the infamous “burn ebook” featured within the authentic film, the Walmart advertisements are centered round a “deal ebook” highlighting reductions the retailer is providing this vacation season.
At present we’re breaking down why this marketing campaign is sensible advertising and marketing by Walmart.
Wish to promote to millennials? Reference Imply Ladies
Imply Ladies is a generation-defining movie for millennials. This technology was the goal demographic for the movie when it was initially launched, and has since been a mainstay in millennial popular culture.
For the reason that movie is regarded positively by so many members of this technology, it’s the proper backdrop for nostalgia advertising and marketing, which tends to be particularly efficient for millennials.
Nostalgia advertising and marketing leverages familiarity to evoke constructive feelings from potential clients. Millennials got here of age throughout a significant technological revolution, giving them a singular disposition: an analog childhood and a tech-savvy younger maturity.
This leaves many millennials particularly vulnerable to nostalgia advertising and marketing if it reminds them of “less complicated occasions” earlier than we have been all on-line and Imply Ladies debuted through the tail finish of that point interval.
Promoting to millennials is particularly necessary for mega-retailers like Walmart through the vacation season. Millennials at the moment are the largest dwelling group of adults within the U.S. and are anticipated to be spending greater than different generations this vacation season. In different phrases, if retailers wish to herald vacation gross sales, they want millennials to purchase from them.
Capitalizing on the movie’s remake
The marketing campaign provides to the buzzing Imply Ladies universe. Walmart’s Black Friday advert dropped one week earlier than the primary trailer for the upcoming Imply Ladies remake was launched, which doubtless wasn’t a coincidence.
The 2024 movie is an on-screen rendition of the Imply Ladies musical, and although they aren’t formally related it’s straightforward for viewers to affiliate the Walmart advert with the brand new movie’s promo. Actually, some X customers expressed favoritism for the Walmart advertisements over the trailer for the upcoming movie:
Whereas we gained’t know the total influence of Walmart’s marketing campaign till Black Friday gross sales figures begin rolling in, to this point the marketing campaign has been a well-received dialog starter for the retailer’s buyer base.
