Where to Find
Towson Town Center
Towson, Md.
For a number of years, Towson Town Center's series of humorous ad
campaigns aimed to increase customer awareness of the center's wide
selection of retailers. The campaigns helped build sales, consumer
awareness of the center's variety of stores and an image of the center as
a fun place to shop.
Those goals attained, the marketing team decided the time was right for
a new campaign that would retain the humorous tone and continue to
highlight the center's store selection, but in a fresh way. With nearly
200 retailers, the center could easily claim that it had something for
everyone, giving birth to the "Where to Find" campaign.
But Towson Town Center's greatest asset--its broad range of retailers
and customers--presented an advertising challenge: how to reach all
segments of a diverse market.
OBJECTIVES
1. To increase sales 5% for the year.
2. To create a cost-effective multimedia campaign that would dominate the
market, reaching 85% of the target audience at least three times per
flight.
3. To create awareness of the center and its stores while emphasizing the
center's ability to meet consumers' needs.
4. To create unique print and outdoor ads that would stand out.
5. To provide a consistent and humorous theme throughout all the ad
media, to enhance the ads' association with Towson Town Center.
IMPLEMENTATION
The marketing team selected TV and outdoor advertising for their ability
to reach the masses cost-effectively and complemented those media with
magazine advertising to hit a more targeted audience.
Three billboards and six magazine ads all used black-and-white
photography depicting ordinary people in everyday situations, each in
need of something that could be purhased at Towson Town Center. A bright
yellow accent was used to catch the eye. The copy included the number of
stores at which the needed item could be obtained, and parts of the
center's directory were used in the background to increase consumer
awareness of the stores.
Two 30-second, black-and-white TV spots continued the theme,
spotlighting a person who needed something and mentioning the number of
stores that could fulfill that need. The TV ads concluded with the
center's well-known tagline, "You Should See This Place."
Altogether, the campaign sought to reinforce the message that no matter
what you're looking for, you're sure to find it at Towson Town
Center.
RESULTS
The high-impact campaign clearly caught its audience's attention; many
customers called to compliment its originality, and it helped sales
increase 6% for 1996. The ads highlighted 84 stores, which averaged a 7%
increase for the year.
The TV ads reached 87% of the target audience (women 25 to 54) an
average of 6.3 times, achieving 548 gross rating points. The campaign
also reached more than 300,000 of the market's affluent consumers through
the magazine placements and made more than 13 million impressions through
the billboards.
The campaign also generated more than 90 column inches of publicity
(valued at nearly $10,000) and won a Retail Advertising Conference
award.
CREDIT
Owned by: TrizecHahn Corp.
Managed by: TrizecHahn Centers
Professional recognition to: Leigh Bates, marketing director;
Christopher S. Schardt, general manager; Gray Kirk/Van Sant, advertising
agency.
EXPENSES
| TV production | $20,496 |
| TV media | 69,618 |
| Magazine production | 15,006 |
| Magazine media | 12,240 |
| Billboard production | 21,828 |
| Billboard media | 26,469 |
| Total | $165,657 |
|
