My daughter and I slipped out to meet a friend for coffee Thanksgiving morning. Serendipitously and inexplicably we ended up lost in the press section of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Talk about a wrong turn that turned out alright. I took the opportunity to survey some of the parade brands:
Congratulations to GM. The GMC’s pulling the floats are a prominent presence:
Pillsbury made a big impression:
Energizer zinged by:
Toro Storr tractors anchored the balloons:
Delta presented a holiday theme:
And one very hyped personal brand: Kanye West:
Ending with the Macy’s own holiday brand theme “Believe”:
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, with 3.5 live spectators and 50 million more on television (at least), is an extremely effective marketing venue for brands. Macy’s Parade may be the very essence of commercialization, but it doesn’t fail to provide a brand experience that is pure delight:
Additional brand sponsors of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade: Homewood Suites, South Dakota Department of Tourism, Hamburger Helper, Build-a-Bear, Morton Salt, Office Max, NY Daily News, Hess, Disney, Pixar, Abrams Books, Twentieth Century Fox, Pillsbury, Dreamworks, McDonalds, Sony, Marvel Entertainment, Nickelodeon, Kool-Aid, Ocean Spray, Food Network, Toro, Remo Drum Heads, Timberland, and the Affinia Hotel.