Wal-Mart was looking for a new and creative way to target the “mother” demographic. With Walmart’s national reach well established, Walmart decided to focus a campaign on this heretofore untargeted demographic. We created the series, Walmart Mom. It features a mother who saved so much money and time at Walmart that she was home all the time. Her family, fatigued by her newfound constant presence, suggested she go and work as the Walmart Mom. The character, played by Melissa Disney, treats all customers as if they were her kids. For example, she combs their hair and makes them clean up after themselves at the store.
What was unique about this campaign was the original idea to make Walmart Mom interactive. The plan was to have a drop-box at every Walmart where customers could write in brief suggestions for future episodes. If any customer suggestion was used, that customer would receive a Walmart gift-card and recognition during the episode. This would enable brand loyalty because the marketing strategy would be directly dependent on the customers. They would feel a link to the company and directly responsible for the marketing campaign’s success.
Walmart Mom is an example how we can create interactive advertainment campaigns. We utilize customers’ ideas, not videos, as part of campaigns. Because we make the final product, it guarantees that the crowd sourced content is revised and produced at the best possible quality. New Media has opened up several doors in the world of advertising and entertainment; the next step is to make customer integration as seamless as possible and user-idea driven campaigns can do just that.