The instrumental to Missy Elliott’s “Move That Dutch” is blaring by way of your audio system whereas Lindsay Lohan is in your display screen strolling by way of the halls of North Shore Excessive Faculty. Did you simply transport again to the early 2000s?
No, likelihood is you had been simply served Walmart’s newest Black Friday advert.
The film Imply Ladies has been a popular culture basic 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 collection of advertisements options 5 of the movie’s unique solid members reprising their roles and even features a cameo from Missy Elliott herself. As an alternative of the infamous “burn e book” featured within the unique film, the Walmart advertisements are centered round a “deal e book” highlighting reductions the retailer is providing this vacation season.
Right now we’re breaking down why this marketing campaign is good advertising by Walmart.
Need 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, which tends to be particularly efficient for millennials.
Nostalgia advertising leverages familiarity to evoke constructive feelings from potential prospects. Millennials got here of age throughout a serious technological revolution, giving them a singular disposition: an analog childhood and a tech-savvy younger maturity.
This leaves many millennials particularly inclined to nostalgia advertising if it reminds them of “easier instances” earlier than we had been all on-line and Imply Ladies debuted in the course of the tail finish of that point interval.
Promoting to millennials is particularly necessary for mega-retailers like Walmart in the course of 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 probably wasn’t a coincidence.
The 2024 movie is an on-screen rendition of the Imply Ladies musical, and although they aren’t formally linked it’s straightforward for viewers to affiliate the Walmart advert with the brand new movie’s promo. In truth, some X customers expressed favoritism for the Walmart advertisements over the trailer for the upcoming movie:
Whereas we gained’t know the complete influence of Walmart’s marketing campaign till Black Friday gross sales figures begin rolling in, up to now the marketing campaign has been a well-received dialog starter for the retailer’s buyer base.
