If you think it made a statement from Ralphie’s living room window, picture a 20-foot version at an outdoor mall.

Actually, no imagination necessary.

To kick off its marketing campaign for A Christmas Story: Live! musical airing on December 17, Fox will erect a large-scale replica of the iconic leg lamp at The Grove in Los Angeles.

Based on the 1983 holiday film about a child who dreams of getting a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, Fox’s adaptation stars Andy Walken as Ralphie, Maya Rudolph as his mother and Chris Diamantopolous as his father.

Jane Krakowski also plays Ralphie’s teacher, Ana Gasteyer plays neighbor Mrs. Schwartz and Matthew Broderick serves as narrator/grown-up Ralphie when the show airs live.

The main cast, along with Executive Producer Marc Platt, will attend the tree-lighting ceremony at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 24, then stick around to greet shoppers and take shareable photos with the leg-lamp installation. It will remain up throughout Black Friday weekend, and come down Sunday, November 26.

The leg lamp is one of the most iconic and instantly recognizable items from the A Christmas Story movie, so it made sense to include it as part of the campaign, according to Fox.

The network will also hand out 2,500 free tortoise shell “Ralphie glasses,” replete with a broken lens in homage to the warnings that he’ll “shoot his eye out.” And Fox has partnered with Toys for Tots to have gift donation bins on the site.

Targeting Viewers as They Shop

The activation kicks off a multi-platform marketing campaign designed to capture the attention of shoppers as the holiday season gets underway.

As people hit the sale racks on Black Friday, Fox is working with mobile marketing company Verve to geo-target shoppers at big box retailers such as WalMart, Best Buy, Macy’s, Costco and Target. When swiping their mobile devices, people will see A Christmas Story: Live! creative, such as the photo below, to drive awareness about the premiere.

Fox also is targeting Thanksgiving and Black Friday conversations on Twitter, and has developed custom Snapchat geo-filters for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Marketing efforts will then target online shoppers on Cyber Monday.

Driving it Home on Social Media

While Fox’s campaign initially aims to reach the throngs of people enticed by post-Thanksgiving deals, A Christmas Story - 12 Days of Live serves as a social component to maintain momentum leading up to the premiere.

From Dec. 6-17, cast, crew members and surprise guests will post Facebook Live videos from the set of of the musical.

Each day, the stream will feature new content around the show, such as a behind the scenes set tour, singing lessons with the vocal coaches and interviews with the songwriters. It will culminate with an influencer-hosted live stream that will serve as a second screen during the live broadcast.

Fans are also encouraged to share their own holiday memories of the original movie using the hashtag #MyChristmasStory on Facebook.

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