Target Keeps Kids Front And Center In Back-To-School Promotions

Target is letting kids call the shots for its national back-to-school sales season, according to several media reports on Monday (July 18).

Target is hoping to build on the success of its kid-inspired lines of Cat & Jack and Pillowfort products. Because those products proved to be so successful for the massive chain retailer, Target is hoping to keep kids involved in its back-to-school shopping season campaign in every way possible, from allowing children to choose which school programs to fund in their specific communities to seeking out their input on Target’s national ad campaign.

“Kids and families are incredibly important to Target, and just as parents recognize the potential in their kids, Target does, too,” Jeff Jones, Target’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement. “We were inspired to work even more closely with kids after seeing the difference they made in the development of our new Cat & Jack and Pillowfort lines. Now, we’re taking things a step further, allowing kids to put their mark on Target’s community-giving and marketing campaign for the back-to-school season. Both are not only inspired by kids but completely created by kids.”

Target has also partnered with DonorsChoose.org, a nonprofit that funds education projects, to fund school projects by donating $5 million toward some of the kid-generated ideas that its back-to-school campaign will produce to “help students across the country live healthier, more active lives,” according to Chain Store Age.

The donation is one of the largest in the history of DonorsChoose.org’s existence and could fund programs that would reach up to 200,000 students.