OBJECTIVE:  Drive hunters to visit Mills Fleet Farm on their way to the Minnesota Deer Hunting Opener.  They also requested that we add an irreverent personality to the event.

BACKGROUND:  Each year, Mills Fleet Farm has a special sale on the Friday before the Minnesota Deer Hunting opener.  They feature giveaways and special offers.

The event draws new customers to Mills Fleet Farm.  Most of their Twin Cities locations are on the urban fringe.  Orange Friday provides an opportunity for hunters to drop in on their way to their deer stands.

STRATEGY AND CONCEPT:  To make sure that Twin Cities hunters stopped at Mills Fleet Farm on their way to the hunt, we wanted to make sure it was highly visible the week leading up to the Orange Friday.  To keep it top-of-mind and add the personality they wanted, we decided to create a serial and anchor it on the front page of StarTribune.com.

We created a 5-day comic strip about a deer that was trying to stop “Orange Friday.”  Besides giving personality to the event, it gave us an irreverent way to show how the gear purchased at Mills Fleet Farm would make the reader a more successful hunter.

A sample of the strip is featured to the left.  A gallery of the full strip can be found here.

RESULTS:  Anecdotally, we learned that this was the most successful “Orange Friday” in its history.  Before opening, there were lines outside their stores.

By the numbers, 368k unique users read the series.  On average, they spent 27 seconds interacting with the ad.

ROLE:  Concept, Creative Direction, Copywriting