Old Hit Aimed at Younger Readers

Posted Saturday, November 1, 2008 12:00 am

By: Mark Fitzgerald To reach its target audience of young, socially active Chicago commuters, the free-distribution RedEye is stacked in coffee shops, handed out by hawkers at 'L' subway stops, and always available in eye-catching bright red newsracks. But for one day in October, the youth tab added a new lure: Its newsracks serenaded readers.

In an unusual ad campaign for the musical Jersey Boys, when customers opened a RedEye newsrack, they heard Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons singing their oldie hit Sherry. The music clip was followed by a commercial announcement noting the one-year anniversary of the show's arrival in Chicago.

The device to play the audio clip came from Americhip, which provides what it calls "multisensory" marketing. A circulation team worked over the weekend to install the chips in all 2,300 RedEye newsracks in time for the Columbus Day promotion.

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Old Hit Aimed at Younger Readers

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