I grew up reading my Dad’s Sports Illustrated; except for the swimsuit issues my mom would hide or toss into the burning barrel. Once out on my own, I found that for a much higher subscription cost I got MUCH more from reading about sports than reading about cleaning, organizing, recipes and fashion in traditional womens magazines.  So I gave in and purchased an SI subscription in my twenties. Now as a thirty-something, I’m still reading it weekly.

My assessment of Sports Illustrated ads has always been that they’re for the beer-drinking, sports fan man who isn’t thinking about his wife and family while he browses the magazine.

My perception changed last week.

I turned to what looked like, and most definitely was, a Valentine’s Day card. Being the wife who had not bought her husband a Valentines Day card yet I was intrigued…

When I opened the card and read the inside message I found a true Valentines card written for a male reader to give to his wife. The copy referenced a planned spa weekend for her in Las Vegas where she could pick any of the following weekends to go.

I assumed it was from a Vegas casino promoting their spa. Until I peeled it off…

The tagline read “Spas for her. Sports for you”.
On the back was a complete listing of sporting events for the husband to attend in Vegas while the wife goes to the spa. It is a part of the “Only Vegas” campaign.

My husband recently mentioned that he would love for us to go to Vegas so the card baited me. It is a direct flight and affordable for us to get to from the prairie in which we live. And while I have not yet booked our trip to Vegas on one of these targeted weekends on this ad, I will.

While we always have a target audience in mind with advertising there are peripheral audiences that we end up reaching, much to our surprise, with measurable results we are not expecting. The “Only Vegas” campaign can chalk me up to one of those unexpected conversions – along with a happy husband who is thrilled his wife reads Sports Illustrated.

What marketing campaigns have connected with you – even though you weren’t the target audience?

Katie Pinke is AdFarm’s leading connection-maker, travels across North America promoting our brand and is the first point of access for new prospects into the exciting world of AdFarm. Katie can be reached directly at Katie.Pinke@adfarmonline.com.