Discount retailer Big Lots has kicked off a new campaign that promotes its stores as a destination for savvy bargain hunters, and the campaign drops just ahead of Memorial Day sales.
The “Be A BIGionaire” campaign features the Parks and Recreation star Retta who runs through the store, testing furniture and loading her cart with deals. “Live Big, Save Lots,” says Retta in the ad.
“For our first BIGionaire in the campaign, we wanted to partner with a celebrity who embodied ‘being a BIGionare’ someone who knows how to stretch a dollar and also had cultural cache to help reach new customers,” said Joice Wirkus, SVP, Marketing at Big Lots. “Retta fit the bill perfectly! She’s a big fan of the brand, shopping at our stores regularly. We love her sense of humor, savvy shopping style and authenticity.”
The campaign comes out of the brand’s consumer research that identified what differentiates Big Lots from the competition and why customers choose the store.
“While Big Lots has great awareness levels with customers, consideration of our brand is lagging behind our competitors,” said Wirkus. “So we conducted extensive consumer research to understand exactly why our customers love us and what sets us apart from other discount retailers. We found that our customers love to shop with us for the exceptional values and surprising products they can find for their home. In their minds, we are ‘the home of the hunt’ and they love to share this experience with their friends. Our strategic objective for the BIGionaire campaign is to make the idea of the treasure/bargain hunt culturally relevant and ownable.”
The new campaign, which was created by Big Lots and creative agency Tombras, includes both national and local TV ads, as well as radio, email, digital, video, mobile and social channels. The spots ran in test markets last month and rolls out nationally this weekend as Big Lots aims to drive consumers in for its “Summer Stunner Sale.”
The campaign targets a “middle-America Superwoman,” said Wirkus. “She’s unapologetically savvy and loves to entertain, she loves finding big deals on everything she needs for her home and everything she wants for herself. In short, she’s so special that the English language didn’t have a word that described her, so we call her ‘BIGionaire’ – someone who feels like a million bucks when they hunt for the best deals at their neighborhood Big Lots.”
As an essential retailer, Big Lots has been open throughout the pandemic, and the brand has also offered ecommerce and curbside pickup. As the world reopens, the retailer still expects some of last year’s shopping behavior to remain.
“We’ll still see some level of pandemic behaviors continue – consumers are more expecting to get the products they want how they want them,” said Wirkus. “This includes more online-first shopping, BOPIS, curbside and shopper expectations of easy-to-shop, friendly, clean stores. And they want to stretch their dollar even further while celebrating in style. These are things that we have prioritized, and we think we are in a prime position to own this landscape and delight new shoppers as they experience the new Big Lots.”
