It's easy to get lost in the crowd in the Big Apple, but Best Buy made sure that didn't happen when it opened 11 new stores in New York and New Jersey in September 2000. To
rivet the attention of its target audience (males 16-40, young families and white collar professionals) the consumer electronics retailer blanketed the city and its environs with
guerilla marketing stunts and grassroots buzz in the week before its store openings. The company mascot - a walking logo known as the "Best Buy Guy" - made appearances outside the
sets of the CBS "Early Show," NBC "Today Show" and MTV's "Total Request Live." He was seen distributing 20,000 free subway/train tokens and 8,000 $5 Best Buy gift cards to
commuters in six subway locations. He doled out 50 Best Buy umbrellas and one million branded coffee cups to various Manhattan delis and street vendors. And he helped draw traffic
to the Grand Central Fun Zone, a September 18 event at Grand Central Station, featuring a model of the "ultimate urban apartment," juiced up with the latest appliances and
entertainment technologies. More than 3,500 consumers checked out the wares, registered to win prizes (including a gaming system and full set of kitchen appliances) and walked off
with goodies such as T-shirts, hats and gift cards.
A similar event took place three days later outside the New York Stock Exchange, this time drawing more than 9,300 attendees with doughnuts, coffee and the "ultimate urban
office," a prototype replete with the latest gadgets and a 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser fully-loaded with mobile video and car audio technology. That morning, the mascot joined Best
Buy CEO Richard Schulze in ringing the opening bell of the NYSE, and an analysts meeting followed.
And that's not even the half of it. Best Buy's launch also included a free Sting concert in Central Park, a meaty ad campaign and grand opening events in each of its new
stores. The PR campaign generated more than 81 million media impressions (valued at more than $12 million using an ad equivalency ratio of 1:3) and achieved a 2,000 percent ROI.
Store sales figures on opening day were 125 percent to 150 percent above projections. Best Buy is scheduled to open four more stores in the New York area this year.
(Joy Harris, Best Buy, 952/995-5448)
Client: Best Buy Stores, Eden Prairie, Minnesota
Agency: Weber Shandwick, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Campaign timeframe: Summer 1999 - fall 2000
Campaign budget: Just under $1 million