TJX retailers bring carols to Instagram Reels for holiday campaign

Dive Brief:

T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods and Marshalls recently announced its "Carol for a Cause" holiday campaign, where the retailers want consumers to record carols on Instagram Reels and share them with the hashtag #CarolForACause. For each recording shared, the retailers will donate $10 to Feeding America up to $1 million, according to a company press release.
The retailers have tapped artists Meghan Trainor, Brandy, Andy Grammer, Brett Eldredge, Sofia Reyes, Ally Brooke and Pentatonix to perform carols and encourage consumers to do the same a capella, with music or by lip-syncing over holiday songs, according to the company statement.
Select Instagram Reels will be featured on the retailers' microsite, where visitors can view virtual carolers. Trainor kicked off the series of celebrity Instagram Reels last week, and the companies will feature a new Instagram Reel each week of the campaign, which ends Dec. 27, from one of the musicians singing their favorite holiday carol at home.

Dive Insight:

The campaign is meant to recreate the holiday caroling tradition now that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted in-person gatherings, according to Victoria Shonkoff, vice president and marketing director for T.J.Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods.

The holiday campaign comes as TJX announced the launch HomeGood's e-commerce site, which is expected to roll out next year. With the pandemic shifting consumer spending toward home items, store comps at HomeGoods increased by 15% during the third quarter.

The move may also indicate Instagram's ambitions to grow its presence as a commerce player as it looks to lure more merchants to its platform — something that directly takes on rival TikTok. A number of brands and retailers have experimented with the Chinese-owned platform recently as a marketing tool but also as an additional commerce channel as TikTok expanded its capabilities. But more brands have also been turning to Instagram as the platform has ramped up its own features, like new shopping capabilities added to the Reels feature last month.