Know your audience.

How many times have we all heard this golden rule of PR? Countless.

How many brands embrace this advice and execute it successfully?  Not as many as we’d like. Old Navy’s most recent stab at it, revealed last week, definitely has the potential to take this rule by the brightly colored, affordably priced flip flops and kick it out of the park.

For the past year or so, Old Navy has been attempting to break away from the mannequins-on-conveyor-belts and families-standing-on-rotating-pedestals image that we all associate with the brand.  Ads now include scenes that resemble mini musical theatre productions and unlikely celebrities such as Mr. T and Anna Farris.  My feelings on those are questionable, but check this one out…

This newest ad campaign features former NKOTB heartthrob Jordan Knight in an infomercial-esque, fictional CD release entitled “Summer Catalog.”  As the intro to the ad explains, “He’s sold over a bajillion records, now Jordan Knight has turned his attention to summer catalogs – Old Navy’s 2012 Summer Catalog.”  Knight’s vocal stylings take Old Navy’s new summer designs “step by step” (yep, pun intended) in a 1:30 video spot, full of dramatic embellishments, humor, and a bit of sarcasm.  Type www.jordansingsoldnavy.com into your browser and you’re redirected to a Facebook landing page with links to highlighted products and five shorter “Summer Jams” about swimwear, sun shorts, and the like, all available for download.  You can even enter to win an Old Navy T-shirt signed by (a gracefully aging) Jordan Knight.

A brilliant brand and boy band combo.

Old Navy has effectively figured out how to tap into their target market by poking fun at themselves—they are well aware that some of their ads are cheesy, even goofy.  Now they’ve become smart enough to capitalize on it.  They also garner brand attention by appealing to their audience’s inner teeny-boppers—shoppers who grew up fawning over NKOTB and patiently awaiting a new CD’s arrival IN STORES (not just online) will undoubtedly find this campaign entertaining.  The question is, will they find it entertaining enough to make a purchase?   This is definitely going to be a campaign to watch.  In the meantime, treat yourself to this little throwback.

Are you as in love with Old Navy’s newest campaign as we are?  Think it’s going to go viral?