Watch the Campaign That Target Shelved After Its Security Breach

Before its massive security breach late last year, Target had been working on a campaign to highlight its efforts to be a model corporate citizen, using the theme "Around for Good." Once hackers had captured millions of its customers' credit card numbers, Target CMO Jeff Jones decided to temporarily shelve the effort, saying that despite testing well with consumers, it still felt "tone deaf." Now Target will try again. "Fast forward a few months later, and we continue to monitor the data, and data is showing all the right signs of improvement," Mr. Jones said. "The guest is sharing with us that they're, frankly, tired of hearing about the breach in the media all the time, and they're ready to move. That and our own intuition, we believe the time is right." So the retailer, which originally planned to break the work during the Olympics on NBC, instead plans to begin the the campaign on TV Sunday during ABC's "Billboard Music Awards." Four spots, three in English and one in Spanish, will run through June, in an effort to capitalize on spring sweeps. In addition to TV ads, the campaign includes cinema advertising and digital videos. "For the first time in our history we're going to share the story of all Target does every day in the community. ... It's tricky because we're not a company that flaunts things," Mr. Jones said. "One of the things I love about this body of work, we're not telling people how to feel, we're showing them what we do." The ads highlight Target's direct-trade coffee and its school library makeover program, as well as the $4 million it gives to communities each week and the more than 1 million volunteer hours logged by employees last year. The campaign is slated to include several additional spots in the fall. Deutsch L.A. is the agency. Mr. Jones said he's not looking for the campaign to drive store traffic, necessarily. But he will be watching engagement and metrics on consumer attitudes toward Target. "The thing we know so well is people choose to do business more and more with companies whose purpose aligns with them," he said. "We hope it will be received in the authentic sense it was created."

Watch the Campaign That Target Shelved After Its Security Breach

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