Creating 125 TV spots for Target: spot on

Came across this news story about Target creating a series of 15-second spots highlighting the wide variety of products available at the store. Apparently, more than 125 spots have been created since May this year. I liked the fact that they didn’t take any half-measures to demonstrate the variety  – they could have stopped at 5 or 10 spots. But 125? Seems audacious and maybe even an overkill but amply demonstrates the mega nature of the proposition.

All the spots follow a similar structure: 9 seconds of plot; a 1-second reveal (with a ding sound, like a lightbulb going off) when a product resolves the tension; and five seconds of music, as the bull’s-eye logo swipes over a pair of taglines, “Life’s a moving target” and “Expect more. Pay less.” Here’s a cute little one:

Agency: W+K

Crafting such seemingly simple scripts can be tougher than you think, especially given the duration and the ‘template’ of sorts. As the Adweek article quotes, the set up has to be intriguing and the reveal surprising yet unambiguous. Watch more spots from the campaign here. I like.

See more ‘short & sweet’ TV spots here and here.