G.I.Joe’s was a big-box sports & auto chain in the Pacific Northwest, founded in 1952 an Army Navy surplus store (a lot of those WWII). But when they took us on as their ad agency, they wanted to change that old brand and redefine themselves as sports and auto.
Their marketing data showed the primary customer for G.I.Joe's was male 18-45. One member of our creative team aptly described the store as the place where action figures would shop if they came to life (a nightmarish thought by itself). We created a brand message based on the exhortation "Seize the Weekend" to appeal to those action figures.
Though the chain had no budget for "brand" advertising per se (nearly all of their ad budget came from their wholesalers), each price-item ad carried the brand with humor designed to appeal to the hairy-arrgh-arrgh-arrgh target market.
As our spokesperson we enlisted the iconic voice talents of NPR comedian, Merle Kessler of Duck's Breath Mystery Theater fame (his online persona was Ian Shoales, for those of you familiar with the radio show). Also, you'll notice the ubiquitous white duck in most of the ads, which became the mascot of the chain.
It worked. During the first year of the campaign, same-store sales grew by as much as 20%. Without increasing the media weight, we were also able to increase measured ad awareness from 6% to 70% in six months. The campaign also won several advertising awards, including Clios, Best in the West, and Communication Arts.
Credits: Me (CD and writer), James Cheung (writer), Oscar Reza (art director), Jill Andresevic (producer...who was able to perform miracles on almost no budget), Merle Kessler (voice talent)
TV Ads
Midlife Crisis: Parody of a contemporary Obsession fragrance ad.
Nikes: Music Appreciation Class
Asics: Skateboard Back to School
Your Brain
Another Bad Hitchcock Parody
Grand Prix
House Fly Sale Extension
Christmas Sale8-Hour Thanksgiving Sale
Radio
Cow Camping
Manly Men
Direct Mail
A helpful gift idea chart. We came up with this as a novel way to do something for our customers.
A coupon announcing the 10% off sale, using the Pacific Northwest's penchant for volcanoes blowing their tops. Too soon?
