The primary objective for Welcome To was to increase Target brand awareness and brand love among multicultural, millennial, and Gen-Z guests by spotlighting, inspiring, and showing up for their communities’ celebrations and traditions.
WIth an understanding that holiday celebrations of underrepresented communities have often been overlooked in mainstream culture, the Welcome To series challenged more narrow paradigms around what the holidays represent, with the goal of giving voice to a new set of communities and holiday celebrations. The series also showcased custom holiday product assortments, preserving and shining a spotlight on these cultural celebrations.
As a direct result of Target’s commitment to highlight the joy and uniqueness to each of these celebrations, the series brought to millions of viewers 12 episodes that featured authentic stories and compelling characters. Inclusivity was prioritized by wide representation of diverse ethnicities, ages, sexual orientations, family structures, and more.
Authenticity was at the core of the series strategy, driving our approach to talent casting, product integration, and creative format.
Each episode was structured around talents’ personal experiences of each holiday. Honest and heartfelt interviews, demonstrations of cherished family traditions, along with intimate looks inside family homes and histories, created emotional moments of connection between talent and the viewers, resulting in peak audience retention and engagement.
This series also embraced popular YouTube verticals such as food, beauty, and fashion to capture attention and engage viewers on topics they are already interested in. Within these verticals, we leaned into popular YouTube formats, especially how-to videos, teaching viewers new dancing, cooking, beauty, and fashion techniques.
In order to further amplify the voices of the series, micro-influencers with established social reach were cast as the central talent of each episode. These micro-influencers cross-promoted the series and their episodes across their own channels on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
Día de Muertos. Master baker Alicia Becerra shares what the holiday means for her and her family, as she bakes and decorates cookies with her adorable daughters.
Diwali. Supermom Jyoti Chand spends the entire day with her kids celebrating Diwali, as they dress in traditional clothing, cook together, and open presents.
Three Kings Day. For Three Kings Day, comedian and host Darlene Demorizi shares how she celebrates with her family by cooking moro de guandules and pernil with her mother-in-law.
Lunar New Year. Master of flavor Jing Gao shares how she celebrates Lunar New Year, cooking delicious hot pot and seasoning it with her famous Sichuan Chili Crisp.
Finally, Target product integration came with a very light touch, supplementing rather than distracting from the authentic stories. Target products were primarily used in moments of preparation and celebration of their holidays, and featured in the background of talents’ homes.
To date, the 2021 series has 10.3 million views.
The series successfully captured the target audience of millennials and Gen Z, with an 85% average of the audience falling within that demographic.
Across the series, positive comment sentiment was above 90% as fans flooded the comments with remarks about feeling represented and inspired.
Brand-related sentiment was 2x the platform average on YouTube, as fans specifically thanked Target for creating the series and spotlighting their communities.
