"Getting pants or anything else shipped to you is not nearly as
compelling nor universal as saving money on gas," said Gary Getto,
president at ABX. "In the case of Big Gas Savings, the messaging
was clear and easily understood and the humor was not quite as lewd
as the Ship My Pants ad and did not generate the level of dislikes
that Ship My Pants did."
Indeed, twice as many people disliked the Ship My Pants ad,
according to ABX, while a larger portion of people reported they'd
like to watch Big Gas Savings again. Big Gas Savings also scored
higher in areas including awareness, relevance and the overall
clearness of the message.
Ship My Pants launched on April 10 and quickly garnered millions
of views on YouTube. To date, the ad, which began airing on TV two weeks later, has racked
up more than 18 million views. Big Gas Savings launched on May 23 and has about 4 million
views on YouTube.
Kmart's been mum on the subject of whether it'll continue this
streak of puntastic advertising. When asked earlier this month
whether there's a fear that the joke is already getting old, a
Kmart spokeswoman said only: "Creativity is important in Kmart's
advertising; especially to engage our members and share new
information on promotions and initiatives. We believe that humor is
a natural part of the strategy."
An agency change could determine the direction Kmart ultimately
goes in. The retailer is in the midst of wrapping up an ad agency
review it launched earlier this year. According to executives
familiar with the matter, it's down to a shootout between sibling
agencies DraftFCB, which is trying to defend the
business, and McCann.