JCPenney's Christmas Ad QR Code Campaign.

You do not need to know “Who’s your daddy,” J. C. Penney declares in its Christmas 2011 advertising campaign, as long as you know “Who’s your Santa!”

That playful phrase — punctuated with an exclamation point — will be the centerpiece of the ad blitz that Penney is to introduce for the holiday shopping season. Penney plans to describe the details of the campaign on Tuesday.

The campaign is from the Penney creative agency, Saatchi & Saatchi in New York, part of the Publicis Groupe. It is quite elaborate, with traditional, online, mobile and social elements; among the new media aspects are QR codes, a Facebook game, apps and a presence on Google+.

There are multiple parts to the campaign in addition to conventional pitches to buy gifts.  There will be a “cause marketing” effort, which will help the Salvation Army, and an initiative to encourage shoppers to come out on Black Friday, the dizzy day after Thanksgiving when bargains ostensibly abound.

Penney is among several retailers that have already discussed all or parts of their sales strategies for Christmas 2011. Others include Kohl’s, Macy’s and Old Navy.

The stakes are high as Penney begins its Christmas campaign, and not only because of the uncertain economy. Penney has new faces in its boardroom, including a new chief executive, and recent sales have been sluggish.
In October, analysts expected an increase of 1 percent from the year before in so-called same-store sales at Penney, that is, sales at stores open more than a year, a standard measure of retail health. Instead, they fell 2.6 percent.

As a result, the Penney Christmas campaign will focus on value in addition to spreading holiday cheer.
For instance, a theme that has been running in regular Penney ads — “We make it affordable. You make it yours.” — will be adapted to read, “We make Christmas affordable. You make it yours.”

Still, the campaign strives to be cheerful rather than obsessed, like Scrooge, with saving money.
“The upbeat optimism is a value we’ve put into all our marketing this year,” Ruby Anik, senior vice president for brand marketing at Penney in Plano, Tex., said in a phone interview.  “With all the bad news around,” she added, “we wanted the element of  ‘When I go to J.C. Penney, I have a fun time, and the brand makes me feel good.’ ”

That is also a reason why “Who’s your Santa!” is the focus of the Christmas campaign, Ms. Anik said. “When we were talking about it, working with Saatchi, talking to consumers, the thought came up that ‘only Santa really knows what I want,’ ” she added.  That led to this thought, as Ms. Anik expressed it: “With all the great gifts we offer at J.C. Penney, everyone could be a Santa.”

Television commercials feature multiple scenes of people passing gifts from one to another as an announcer makes statements like these: “Who’s your Santa! Who gives the cozy? Who wraps the warmth, shares the sparkle and doles out the dreams?”  “There’s only one who makes it right,” the announcer concludes.
These are among other details of the Penney Christmas campaign:

• There will be QR code gift tags, which Penney is calling Santa Tags, which a buyer of a gift will receive at a Penney store. The buyer can then scan a QR code, record a voice message of up to 60 seconds and affix the tag to the gift. When the recipient of the gift scans the QR code, the voice message will play.
• The Facebook game will be on the Penney fan page on Facebook, at facebook.com/jcpenney, starting on Nov. 28.
• Penney will again team up with Salvation Army in support of the organization’s Angel Giving Tree online program.

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