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Target and Top Chef

March 2, 2011 by Jim Joseph — President, Lippe Taylor

I was a big big fan of Top Chef when it first debuted, but I have to admit that I've lost interest over the seasons. No reason, really, I just don't watch that much television and it has fallen off of my radar. But not the marketing.

A friend on Twitter alerted me to an episode a week or so ago where the retailer Target was embedded in the cooking challenge for the celebrity chef contestants. So I caught up with it on-demand.

All the chefs were in a Target store, and had to prepare something using only Target merchandise and only Target food. Briiillliaaant.

And when you visit the Top Chef site, it's fully loaded with Target banner ads, giving you a full brand experience. Embedded video also has Target advertising. And ... several TV spots that ran simultaneous with the show also had Top Chef themes to the Target campaign. Fully integrated advertising and promotion.

For years Target has been trying to up its game on groceries, and they have recently finished a huge capital improvement project to rehaul many of its stores. So the fact that they used a television show, with many very celebrated chefs, to highlight their cookware lines and food products is product placement brought to a whole new level.

When you actually watch the episode, the chefs are preparing the food right in the aisles of a Target store, so we also get to see bedding and school supplies and housewares and bottled water and a whole gamut of Target merchandise sitting right in front of us as we watch the action.  

I know that a few people who watched the show commented that it made Target a place that's difficult to shop and find items. I didn't get that feeling at all, to me that was a part of the Top Chef drama not the in-store experience.

Absolutely fascinating to watch from a marketing perspective, a total brand experience completely consistent with Target and what it is trying to accomplish. And clearly consistent for Top Chef as well.

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