By: Rob Longert, PepperDigital
Earlier today, Sears announced the release of a microsite designed to engage tweens as the back to school season approaches. Thirteen partners have signed on as part of Sears’ social media push including Facebook and MySpace, and Vanessa Hudgens, star of the movie High School Musical is the face behind the digital campaign and website.
Sears has adopted a social media strategy designed to drive home their new back to school message of, “Don’t Just Go Back, Arrive,” and almost all of the features of the ArriveLounge site and digital campaign stress user engagement. Avatars created by Meez.com, presence in the Zwinky virtual world, a special section on Nick.com, Facebook and MySpace pages, a presence on Alloy.com, a website dedicated to all things tween, and participation from Seventeen and CosmoGIRL Magazines show that Sears is pushing out information in a variety of ways to reach their target audience.
According to an AdvertisingAge article by Natalie Zmuda:
"The traditional retailer known for its print catalog is taking a decidedly untraditional approach to back-to-school marketing, blanketing the online world by partnering with just about every youth-focused social, virtual and entertainment network out there -- all in hot pursuit of 8- to 14-year-olds that don't exactly see Sears as fashion forward."
In the article, Sears CMO Richard Gerstein stressed the importance of building credibility in front of the tween market by partnering with companies that already have the credibility, through digital. Seems like the marketing department did a good job of selling in digital to the C Suite here…
It is interesting to see Sears dive into digital marketing, and I am curios to see how their future marketing efforts are impacted. Will Sears use a similar approach when it comes to the holiday shopping season or was it the fact that digital was a good communication vehicle for the tween demographic?
One a side note, I think the use of a media news release would be appropriate for an announcement such as this. When announcing a site with this many partnerships, it would be helpful to include links and details about the sites, for both consumers and media.
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