Sears Assembles Air Band, Gomez for fall Teen Fashion Campaign
Retailer Sears is tapping into music and some Disney Channel magic to promote its back-to-school apparel lines with a contest to bring together the first Sears Air Band—as in, no instruments.
The Disney touch comes in the form of an association with Selena Gomez, star of the Disney Channel show “Wizards of Waverly Place”. The music is the result of a casting call for the Sears Air Band. The company has been hosting online auditions at its microsite, the Arrive Lounge (http://www.ArriveLounge.com), since last June. Experts have chosen four of the five band members based partly on Web shout-outs from the public.
But a fifth member remains to be picked, and Sears is letting kids 8 to 16 audition for that slot and the chance to perform with Selena Gomez and the Sears Air band at the MTV Video Music Awards in new York City on Sept. 13.
Entrants could choose one of two ways to apply for the job. Through Aug. 11, they can go to the Arrive lounge site, choose their in visible instrument (guitar, drums, keyboard or vocals) and download cleared music to lip-synch to, and then submit a video of their performance at the site. Last Saturday Sears and MTV also partnered to bring audition taping sessions to 10 in-mall Sears outlets around the nation, so applicants could submit their performances directly for the judges’ consideration.
The song choices basically track four music genres: rock, hip-hop, pop and skater. And Gomez is on the Web site and in the videos shown modeling outfits appropriate to each style from the Sears back-to-school collections, being marketed by the retailer in integrated campaigns under the tag line, “Don’t go back—Arrive.”
“For teens and tweens, fashion says a lot about their personalities, and back-to-school is a perfect time for them to define their look,” Sears Apparel CMO Melanie Henson said in a release.
Visitors to the ArriveLounge.com Web site can view the audition submissions and express their support with an online “Shout-out”. They can avail themselves of 10 shout-outs per day, although it’s not clear that these will factor into the selection of the final band member.
To engage visitors, the Web site offers video of the training the four Air band members already chosen are undergoing to pull their act together for the MTV VMA Awards ceremony, along with some music-related games and a separate contest to create a logo for the Sears Air band. Entrants in that contest can also submit their designs online. The Grand prize winner stands to get $5,000 toward their college fund, while nine other finalists will get an iPod Touch player.
An interactive “Style room” shopping feature lets visitors pull up pictures of Gomez wearing some of the Sears styles, click on individual pieces, and be linked to the main Sears site for product details and the chance to buy the items directly. They can also share the item—interestingly, with their parents rather than their friends, by supplying the parent’s e-mail address.
The ArriveLounge.com microsite also offers visitors a daily chance to enter and win a “Wizards of Waverly place” sweepstakes for a trip for four to Los Angeles and a chance to meet with Gomez and walk the red carpet with her at an unspecified media event.
