Case Study: Target links Black Friday ad sentiment to sales with Crimson Hexagon

Target - Customer Case Study

Crimson Hexagon used its ForSight platform to help Target assess whether the retailer’s new 2012 holiday creative generated more brand affinity than the prior year’s work. The challenge was to measure advertising effectiveness and emotional resonance by analyzing online conversations around Target’s Black Friday campaigns: Wieden+Kennedy’s 2011 “Christmas Champ” and 72andSunny’s 2012 “Deals Duet.”

By applying an EASI social-intelligence framework to tens of thousands of social posts, Crimson Hexagon found the 2011 campaign drove strong positive reactions and correlated with a 1.8% same-store sales increase, while the 2012 campaign generated fewer and more negative responses (only 36% overall acclaim, 4% praise for the new characters) and preceded a 1% sales decline and spikes in consumer calls to return the prior character and disengage from Target. The analysis demonstrated how real-time social data can identify creative winners and guide strategy.

Target