Macy’s to parade Facebook ads on Thanksgiving

When Macy's kicks off the holiday shopping season with its traditional parade on Thanksgiving Day, the retailer will also be deploying social media to complement its holiday push.

The company earlier this year was one of the first retailers to launch Facebook video ads. On Thursday evening, Macy’s will roll out its next round of video ads, this time to coincide with its Black Friday weekend campaign.

"As new vehicles emerge that provide us with enhanced opportunities to engage with our customers, we look to trial and understand the capabilities of the product to deliver compelling communications to shoppers,” said Orlando Veras, director of national media relations at Macy's.

Since June, Facebook, which has about 1.3 billion monthly users worldwide, has served up an average of a billion video views a day, two-thirds of them on mobile devices. The Macy’s video ads will feature cartoon character and parade balloon SpongeBob SquarePants.

Reuters quoted Jennifer Kasper, Macy's group vice president for digital media and multicultural marketing, as saying, "We do believe we are going to reach an incremental audience who are no longer tuning in to traditional TV. For people who have seen it on TV, it keeps us top of mind."