Black Friday is America’s biggest shopping day of the year. It’s also the day after Thanksgiving. Every year, millions of shoppers struggle to shake the effects of tryptophan and get down to the sales before the door open. This year, Target decided to provide a wakeup call service so shoppers wouldn’t miss a minute of savings at their 2 Day Sale. Target recruited top-notch wakeup callers including: Heidi Klum, Darth Vader, a “Heartbreaker,” Dennis the Rooster, a crying baby and Ice-T. Shoppers could then choose who they wanted to wake them up on the morning of the sale.

The campaign was initially seeded with viral films posted sites like atomfilms.com and theforce.net. These virals were supported by a major web push, which included character profiles on Friendster.Once the sale drew closer, press releases were sent to major media outlets and the microsite, www.target.com/wakeup was launched, where consumers learned about the characters, watched their films, and chose whom they wanted to wake them up.

A week prior to the sale, teaser spots ran on national TV, followed by :30 and :60 TV, radio and newspaper.The morning of the sale, the characters called Target customers across the country.