Shhh! South Coast Plaza’s Soft Sell Ads Are Very Softest of the Soft Sell : ADVERTISING
A dictionary listing for subtle these days might say: “See South Coast Plaza’s ads.”
That is because the Costa Mesa megamall has just launched a campaign with gigantic ads that don’t list anchors, don’t tout sales, and don’t picture piles of merchandise. In fact, the ads show hardly any merchandise at all.
Instead, in a campaign that is the softest of the soft sell, South Coast is running a series of uncluttered, double-paged ads that each tell a mini-story in pictures.
The first week, for instance, the ad in The Times showed two laughing, preppy-type young women on a scooter with the caption, “It takes more than looks to get our attention.” In smaller type were the words: “It takes a hero . . . South Coast Plaza is my style.”
“They’re young gals going to UC Irvine or UCLA,” explained Ed Hershey, president of Hershey Communications, which created the campaign. “They’re looking at the camera like they’d look at some guy, as if to say, ‘We’re pretty cute and having a great time and you’ve got to be pretty sensational for us to stop and talk.’ ”
An upcoming ad shows a young woman languidly sitting in a chair with the caption, “When he’s on the East Coast and you’re not it helps to wear houndstooth.” This time, the smaller type reads, “But who am I kidding?”
“She’s still missing this guy and still feeling lonely,” said Maura Eggan, South Coast Plaza spokesperson. “She’s living the cutting-edge, bi-coastal life style. . . . It’s that slice of life--buying into an appealing life style that represents our customers.”
What is unusual is that--unlike most shopping center ads--there are no listings of merchandise or merchants at the mall except for very small type listing the store that sells the clothes in that particular ad. Instead, the ads--which are running in local newspapers, magazines and theater programs--are followed on the next page by a smaller South Coast ad, each week listing a different handful of stores at South Coast.
The idea, said Eggan, is that South Coast considers itself so unusual that customers don’t have to be told what is there. “Our primary market is well aware of South Coast and the stores that are here,” she said. “It’s intended to validate and reinforce with people who are already shoppers the reasons why they shop here and the fact that they want to continue shopping here because of the unique offering of stores.”
The campaign--which took 2 1/2 months to create--will run through Christmas. And by then, it will be hard to miss. By the time the campaign ends, the South Coast ads will have been printed more than 8.3 million times.
