Project Management in Practice – Macy’s Thanksgiving Day

Executive Summary

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade would not be as remarkable as it is today without the operations team working endlessly to develop it. My findings suggest that operational tasks such as identifying the project leader, labeling the parade route, finding bands and celebrities to perform, determining what balloons will fly and regulating the entire balloon process—from choosing the character to inflate, gathering participants, and lastly, identifying the risks involved, are all undertakings that require vast amounts of time and effort. Although implementing this immense display may be difficult, gathering the right team will make achieving success seem simple.

Main Paper

Beginning in 1924, hundreds of Macy’s employees gathered to celebrate the beloved Thanksgiving Day Parade, otherwise known as the Macy’s Christmas Day Parade back then. Ever since that year, this parade grew a name for itself and a tremendously large fan base. Gathering approximately 3.5 million viewers in-person and 50 million viewing it on television, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is second-oldest Thanksgiving Day parade, following 6abc’s Dunkin’ Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With roughly three hours allotted for the parade route, the project leaders that are managing this immense project must execute everything as close as perfect for pleasing their extreme fan base—however, planning for this huge undertaking is not simple. There are many tasks and subtasks that need to be accomplished before the main event can even take place. Getting every project and subproject right is extremely important because the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is one of the largest parades to ever take place in the world, with total costs standing around $11.6 million to $13.4 million. Having to satisfy a numerous amount of people comes with a handful of stressors, some that the project managers can control, and some that are simply uncontrollable.

The magnitude of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade can be overwhelming to project leaders, especially those who are in charge of organizing the entire exhibition. Tasks such as determining who oversees the parade, what roads to shut down and how many miles the parade should be are all duties that the project leaders undertake. Other responsibilities include how much security presence is needed, what the emergency routes should be, how many balloons and floats will there be, and what characters will fly, are important to plan for. In addition, they also must collect and train pilots who will drive the floats and fly the balloons, make sure the parade participants are aware of where they should be at all times, figure out how many celebrities and marching bands will perform, and hire crews who will clean up the streets after the parade has ended. Therefore, organizing managers have a lot to strategize and prepare for to make every parade special in its own way. The question of “who oversees all of these operations?” will arise and many of these stressful tasks are taken care of by a woman by the name of Susan Tercero. Tercero was just recently promoted to the position in March 2018 preceding Amy Kule who had over two decades of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade production experience under her belt. Furthermore, Tercero is now the new Vice President and Executive Producer of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. She also “heads up the Operations team for the parade. Susan and her group are the ones who handle all of the logistics. They work with the various city agencies to make sure that the streets are closed for rehearsals. Or that all of the necessary passageways are cleared so that that convoy of floats and balloons can safely travel through the streets of Manhattan, among other duties” (Hill, 2017). So, although the parade may only last a few hours, there are a years-worth of tasks that must be fulfilled to execute the parade— operational teams work year-round and round-the-clock to prepare for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Tercero further states “It’s one of those things that it’s a tradition. It’s something people look forward to. They build their holiday around it and you have a lot of people from a lot of different walks of life” (Lenker, 2018). Furthermore, she says “it is a balance of trying to think how do we bring that one thing that everyone is expecting to see with the surprise and some new things. We really try to figure out what is going to tell a great story that morning that everybody can relate to” (Lenker, 2018).

The question of “what will the parade route be?” is then proposed. In recent times, the route that the parade travels through seems simply unaltered; however, when the parade first started it was entirely different. Back in 1924 when the parade was first developed, it started “at 145th street in upper Manhattan and ending at the Macy’s flagship store on 34th street, the 111-block parade took several hours to complete” (Specktor, 16 Mind-Blowing Facts). Since then, the parade route has been altered and scaled down depending on what roads are available at the time of the parade. Due to an increase in construction, some blocks may be inaccessible. “This is why — the Saturday before the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade — we have this 3 hour-long logistics meeting. Where each of the core teams come together at Macy’s corporate offices and we then go over every detail, go through every aspect for the parade in order to determine to what’s new for this year, what’s different from years previous and what we can then do to address that challenge” says Orlando Veras who is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade spokesman. That being said, there is a lot more organization involved than one may assume in terms of parade routing. In 2018, the route consisted of a to a two-and-a-half-mile path that started at West 77^th Street & Central Park West and ended at Macy’s Herald Square.

After researching many databases, one of the most important and well-planned steps in the parade process is determining what marching bands will be selected to perform at the parade. This may seem like a small factor, but the parade operations team plans this at least 18 months in advance to ensure the parade is full of engaging musical performances. In 2018, the parade invited approximately 12 marching bands ranging from high school to collegiate level to perform in the parade. To be selected to perform, the marching bands must fill out an application and submit it two years before the parade that they wish to perform at. From this, the operations team chooses 12 winners and sends them their special invitation. In addition to the marching bands, there are also a select pick of Broadway and celebrity appearances who perform current and relevant musical numbers. The Macy’s operations team assigns each celebrity performer to sing on their float. For example, Leona Lewis appeared on the “On the Road Again from Homewood Suites by Hilton®” float, John Legend appeared on the “Discover Adventure! From Build-a-Bear” float, Martina McBride appeared on the “Deck the Halls from Balsam Hill®” float, etcetera. Along with the celebrities, comes the Broadway performers—every year since 1957, Macy’s invites the Rockettes of Radio City Music Hall to perform. From the project organization point of view, it is important to please the consumers and provide them with the best show possible; gathering all forms of entertainment is extremely valuable and beneficial.

Moving forward to the most significant elements and well-known attractions: the balloons and floats that travel the parade route. Each year, millions of people attend the parade or turn on their televisions from home to see what balloons and floats Macy’s created for that year. In 2018, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade featured 17 giant character balloons, 43 novelty balloons, and 27 grounded floats. However, as the project manager in charge of the balloons and floats, there is an extreme amount of pressure placed on you and your team. Members of the operations team must regulate different aspects of the entire balloon and float process—Who chooses what new balloon characters will fly? Who will inflate the balloons before the parade? How much does it cost to fly the balloon and maintain it? What will each float’s theme be? How much does it cost for a float at the parade? —These are all questions that the operations team must ask themselves to accomplish their job successfully. Ranging from the classic balloons like Snoopy, who has been in 38 parades so far, and Charlie Brown, to more modern-day characters such as The Elf on The Shelf and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, each balloon serves an important purpose at the parade and must be a character of high-demand. “Companies sponsoring brand new balloons pay a seriously pricey construction and parade fee, totaling $190,000 at last count… and backing a balloon in the Macy’s parade is a huge investment, so many sponsors opt to participate for several years. Since a new balloon doesn’t need to be constructed, the fee to join in this Thanksgiving Day extravaganza drops to $90,000” (Woods, 2018). Yet, it doesn’t just cost a lot for the balloon itself, the inflation process is also extremely costly. To get these enormous balloons up in the air and stay afloat, mass amounts of helium are needed. Filling each balloon with the required amount of helium costs a minimum of $510,000. While constructing and maintaining these giant balloons is pricey, each float racks up a large cost as well. Because “these Turkey Day spectacles are certainly not your average parade float — those on display at the Macy’s parade can take four to nine months to get from concept to completion. In 2017, a total of 26 extravagant floats were in the parade, with average construction costs ranging from $30,000 to $100,000 for each float” (Woods, 2018). Therefore, managing this parade is an expensive endeavor and must be handled with extreme caution to keep the budget at a minimum and their audience satisfied.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade’s main focal point has always been the balloons; however, without the parade participants, the show wouldn’t be as amazing as it is today. Macy’s gathers 10,000 people to assist in making the parade a huge success. There are approximately 4,000 Macy’s employees collected from Northeast Macy’s department stores to volunteer their time to the parade in whatever their task may be—ranging from inflating balloons, handling balloons, being a balloon pilot, etc. Even training these participants is something the operations team must devote their time to. Operation team members must choose balloon pilots carefully, because “a typical balloon handler, for example, must weigh at least 120 pounds and be in good health. Balloon pilots, who lead the handlers by walking in front of the balloon, must be capable of walking the whole parade route backward without falling or getting lost. Macy’s offers pilot training three times a year, but practice is up to the pilot themselves.” (Specktor, 16 Mind-Blowing Facts). The training that Macy’s offers is complex and requires a lot of preparation. “Training includes lessons on aerodynamics, geometry, and physics. Then, volunteers practice handling one of the big balloons on a field. The team leaders include an overall leader, pilot, captain and two drivers. A police officer marches with each balloon. The biggest balloons require more than 70 handlers, while others may need only 50. The handlers dress in outfits that coordinate with their balloon and hold the ropes to guide the balloon. Each balloon is also tethered to two 800-pound utility vehicles.” (Neary, 2007). Therefore, every year the Macy’s operations team must work vigorously to outdo the previous year’s parade. Yet, none of that is possible without all the generous participants and volunteers who dedicate their time to make the parade just as memorable as the last.

As much as the operations team may plan for this display, there is one factor that is simply uncontrollable—the weather. Balloon accidents are rare but extremely dangerous when they do occur. In 1957, due to excessive rain, Popeye’s hat filled with an overload of water causing it to dump freezing rain onto unlucky parade viewers. In 1993, Sonic the Hedgehog caught a huge gust of wind which sent him into a lamppost and then into a young girl and a police officer. In 1997, Barney balloon severely deflated due to a tear when winds reached about 45 miles per hour, causing the balloon to be removed from the parade. In 2005, an M&M balloon crashed into an office building due to high winds and then followed by crashing into a streetlight which made debris fall onto spectators. The most hazardous event was in 1997 when a six-story Cat in the Hat balloon collided with a street post, injuring four people and even putting one man into a 24-day coma. All of these instances pose a threat to the operations team because they are handling hefty equipment that has the potential to do quite some damage. The team must implement strong guidelines, hence why they have their pilots and balloon-handlers trained and also why there are always police and EMT personnel present. Nonetheless, these rare incidents don’t deter true “balloonatics” (Neary, 2007) away from this tradition.

It can be physically and mentally exhausting to implement and perfect a parade of this scale. The operations team works around-the-clock to ensure each step of the way is nearly flawless. There are extreme measures taken during each undertaking and the team must be fully aware of what each task entails and the necessary steps in completing it. For example, one of the most important tasks in operating the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade would be determining which balloons will be displayed in the parade. Because Macy’s is notorious for their eye-catching balloons, they must fulfill every expectation to the highest degree. Although it may be challenging, the success of the parade is an accomplishment and is worth all the stressful operations in the end.

Biography

Kristen Kelley studied Business Administration with a concentration in Management at Montclair State University. She is a driven, hardworking individual who strives for success. Kristen aspires to pursue a career in the insurance industry. When she is not busy working, she enjoys drawing and painting, and spending time with family. Click here to learn more about the author: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-kelley-85939513b

Works Cited:

Hill, Jim. “What Goes On Behind the Scenes at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Dec. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-goes-on-behind-the-s_b_8644488.

Specktor, Brandon. “16 Mind-Blowing Facts About the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.” Reader’s Digest, www.rd.com/culture/macys-thanksgiving-parade-facts/.

Lenker, Maureen Lee. “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Producer Previews This Year’s Surprises and Highlights.” Entertainment Weekly, ew.com, 19 Nov. 2018, EW.com, 19 Nov. 2018, ew.com/tv/2018/11/19/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-2018-preview/.

Woods, Laura. “How Much Does a Float in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Cost?” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 21 Nov. 2018, www.cbsnews.com/news/thanksgiving-day-2018-parade-float-costs/.

Neary, Kathleen Seiler. “Ultimate Guide to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.” HowStuffWorks, HowStuffWorks, 7 Nov. 2007, people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/holidays-other/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade2.htm.