DALLAS — J.C. Penney Co. Inc., seeking to forge a “love” connection with customers, is taking its $1.2 billion annual advertising business to Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi.
A day after launching a “real-time” ad concept at the MTV Music Video Awards on Thursday, the moderate department store giant said it was replacing Omnicom Group’s DDB in Chicago, which had been its agency for six years.
“The big change will be in the messaging and the content of our new ad campaign, which will be influenced and driven by the philosophy of ‘Lovemarks,’ the incredible book by Kevin Roberts, chief executive officer at Saatchi & Saatchi,” said Michael J. Boylson, Penney’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer.
The concept of “Lovemarks” includes helping brands to achieve optimal love and respect from consumers, which melds with Penney’s agenda to make stronger emotional contact with shoppers.
“We want to help take J.C. Penney to the next level in connecting more deeply with its customers by inspiring ‘love’ for the J.C. Penney brand and elevating the brand into a true ‘Lovemark,'” Roberts said in a statement.
With DDB, Penney’s has taken some bold marketing strides, including the VMA ads, opening a 15,000-square-foot virtual pop-up store in Times Square in March, as well as the current back-to-school campaign with online content on MTV Web sites linked from the J.C. Penney brand experience site, jcpenneybts.com.
DDB executives could not be reached for comment.
Penney’s, based in Plano, Tex., has been pushing for more powerful marketing and compelling merchandise.
“This gives us the potential to elevate the Penney’s brand to a whole new level and break through and differentiate ourselves from all the clutter that’s out there now,” Boylson said.
Penney’s longtime ad campaign revolves around the tag line “It’s All Inside” and plays up the $18.7 billion chain’s business model that links the synergies of its store, catalogue and Internet businesses.
Saatchi & Saatchi will take over Dec. 1. and create Penney’s ads for fall and holiday. The new Saatchi & Saatchi creative campaign will launch for spring, just in time for Valentine’s Day and the Oscars.
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Saatchi & Saatchi’s work for Penney’s will encompass television, radio, magazines, preprint, direct mail and digital media.
“The perception of J.C. Penney lives in the hearts and minds of our customers and is shaped by every interaction they have with our brand,” Ken Hicks, Penney’s president and chief merchandising officer, said in a statement. “Saatchi & Saatchi has a proven track record of working with clients to help them connect with customers.”
The VMA initiative, in which real-time feeds from the awards show were shown on small screens integrated into two Penney’s ads, got “a tremendously positive response,” Boylson said.