JCPenney Targets Girls with Games

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"Our goal is to position the 'Dorm Life' lifestyle brand as a relevant, attractive resource for young adults as they graduate from high school and head off to college," described Anik. "For many of them, this is a first opportunity to define themselves among new college friends, and through decorating their rooms, they can express their personal style and connect with others. At JCPenney, we want to be viewed by college-bound women as a relevant contributor to a very exciting time in their lives."

"We were absolutely targeting females with Dork Dodge. The first year you come into college is when you're going to buy the most of your stuff. Typically, when [girls] think of brands of high style, they don't usually put JCPenney in the top 10, since it's such a 'mom' brand but we're looking to change all of that," explained Kline. "EVB's very oriented towards listening to what young people want. There are a lot of people that I reach out to get their opinions, and we asked the girls about what they wanted. To them it's all about their own style and dealing with things on their own terms. We're big into engagement, and we wanted something with significant content that [a girl would] want to involve a friend with. We use it as a hook to promote JCPenney products."

I made a mix tape of my mixed emotions!

The main part of Dork Dodge bears a passing resemblance to the online social site Habbo Hotel. Interacting with the dorks, however, takes the form of a video. The various personalities in Dork Dodge had us men fluctuating between laughter and cringing because of their accuracy.

"It's very indicative of the men you encounter and we think the video format is critical to conveying the site's message. We actually ended up casting off of Craigslist; 80 people came in and did the characters and it ended up being very economical," said Kline. "The team that worked on it were all women, and we all had clear memories of going to college for the first time."

By contrast to many twitch-based advergames, actions in Dork Dodge are determined by choices made in a pop-up menu. In general, the way you blow off the dorks is very passive-aggressive as well, between giving out fake email addresses and the like. These elements struck us as being very particularly female, and Kline assured us that was not a coincidence.

"Women designed this for a teenage girl's brand; we felt it had to be very female," said Kline. "We ran a few other ideas for incoming freshman girls, like what if you got a creepy roommate? Ultimately, this one centered around the men you might encounter really clicked , and I think the game functionality raised it above the others. It really clicked with that generation of girls; what you're seeing is more women do gaming [today]. We find women that want to interact with each other online and be helpful or send emails out to each other."

It's all about reaching customers on their terms

Dork Dodge is a sign of how things are changing in the advertising front. JCPenney, almost as old and conservative a department brand as there is, is turning to the web, and games in particular, to try and draw out new female customers. As movements like this continue, brand marketers will have to seriously rethink how to reach their consumers.

"[JCPenney] deserves a lot of credit for doing this to try and change perceptions. It had to be something that went to where the consumer is; I give them a lot of credit for doing that. I think this is going to be the beginning of a trend," detailed Kline. "We have so much data that says they're living online. There's now a whole new consumer out there that experiences things in a completely different way."

"Companies are saying they aren't getting impact with their TV spots or magazine ads anymore; we tell them it's not about putting up big stop signs anymore, it's about getting in there with the consumer on their level; the brand doesn't belong to them, it belongs to the consumer. The days of buying a million impressions is over; these are the days of buying a hundred evangelists that influence a million for you," concluded Kline.

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