The holiday season is typically a time for retailers to blanket the airwaves with commercials. This year, one company was noticeably absent: Sears Holdings Corp. The struggling parent of the Sears and Kmart stores hasn’t run paid national television commercials since late November, according to ad research firm iSpot and a person familiar with the situation. The Kmart brand has been absent from national TV networks since Nov. 24, iSpot said, while Sears hasn’t run a paid national TV spot since Nov. 25—the Friday and Saturday...
Sears Holdings , the parent company of US retailers Sears and Kmart , took the " highly unusual " step of buying no TV advertising spots in the crucial period between Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2017 , according to iSpot . The company , which has suffered cumulative losses of $ 11bn since 2011 , spent $ 8.4 million on TV spots for the holiday brand , and $ 6.5 m for the Kmart brand , during the same period in 2017 . Company executives have reportedly claimed that neglecting TV advertising is doing more harm than good . In contrast , Sears Holdings increased its digital ad spend , due to CEO Edward ##mart 's preference for the format .