Q&A: How Macy’s Is Updating the Thanksgiving Parade and July 4 Fireworks With Social Media, Personal Interactions [NEW YORK]
Posted by thizzfacedisco on December 3, 2011
In October 2010, Macy's Parade & Entertainment Group named Amy Kule executive producer of its Thanksgiving Day Parade and July 4 Fireworks events. Kule, who started her career with Macy's in 1996 and worked on in-store events before joining the national special event team, took over the position from Robin Hall and in her first year in the role is finding new ways to refresh both events.
Perhaps her biggest project has been the Macy's “Great American Elf Adventure” initiative, a competition introduced as part of the lead-up to the Thanksgiving Day Parade, which allowed consumers to decorate and design an elf to be included in this year's parade. Blank vinyl elves were spread throughout the retailer's various locations, and consumers had to find them by decoding clues posted to Macy's Facebook page and Twitter account. For areas where Macy's didn't operate a store, Kule and her team hosted family-focused events. Macy's announced the Elf Adventure's winner, Keith Lapinig from Queens, New York, on September 14. His entry will be turned into a 34-foot-tall balloon.
We talked to Kule about the program, her first year on the job, and the challenge involved with updating iconic annual events.
Is it challenging to introduce new elements into what some people consider iconic components to the Macy's brand?
With the parade, you don't really want to change much, because there's a sense of tradition that needs to be maintained in what we do year to year and an expectation about what it is we do. But there are things you can change and things that you can add to, and certainly the elf program this year is one of those factors. Traditionally in the parade, before the Santa balloon comes out, it's led by three elves, and those elves were first developed in 1947, so they're iconic to the parade itself. This year I thought, “How can we change that up a bit and really jump into a little bit of newness and new media?”
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Tags: Fireworks, Interactions, July, Macy's, Media, Parade, Personal, Social, Thanksgiving, Updating, YORK
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