Back-to-school time is here - Sears connects with students on Facebook with their Campus 2010 Program

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

Sorry for my absence here on the Lip-sticking blog, but last week I took a little summer vacation and went back down south to the Myrtle Beach area to spend a few days with my dad and sisters. I never got a chance before I left to write a blog post that I could schedule to run while I was gone. I always intend to do that, but unfortunately it rarely happens.

Now that I'm back to reality I've already started focusing on helping to get my two daughters prepared to head back to college. One is going to do her study abroad semester in Florence, Italy, so she really needs to be ready.

So where did the summer go we're all asking ourselves, right? Most of schools down south start earlier than in the Northeast. So while I was down there on vacation it was the talk of the local news media with some already in session and others starting next week. If you're a freshman in college or helping to move the under-classmates in, you'll also be heading back to school next week as well.

So what was the big Back-to-School promotion this year? Here's one campaign that I made note of.

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

Sorry for my absence here on the Lip-sticking blog, but last week I took a little summer vacation and went back down south to the Myrtle Beach area to spend a few days with my dad and sisters. I never got a chance before I left to write a blog post that I could schedule to run while I was gone. I always intend to do that, but unfortunately it rarely happens.

Now that I'm back to reality I've already started focusing on helping to get my two daughters prepared to head back to college. One is going to do her study abroad semester in Florence, Italy, so she really needs to be ready.

So where did the summer go we're all asking ourselves, right? Most of schools down south start earlier than in the Northeast. So while I was down there on vacation it was the talk of the local news media with some already in session and others starting next week. If you're a freshman in college or helping to move the under-classmates in, you'll also be heading back to school next week as well.

So what was the big Back-to-School promotion this year? Here's one campaign that I made note of.

Sears and Kmart launched their "Campus 2010" social media campaign that is an extension of the Back to Campus program they originally launched last year targeting college students. They created the Sears Campus Connection Facebook page that includes a custom app called the Campus Connector.

Through the app students can decorate a virtual dorm room with Sears or Kmart products and shop for products such as bedding, appliances, electronics and bath essentials, and place them in a virtual dorm room to be shared with others. It's a little bit different from what they created last year which you can learn more about from this post I wrote titled: Back-to-School Marketing Part 2: Sears utilizes Facebook for Campus Ready campaign.

Students can share what they've designed in the Campus Connector by linking it to their Facebook page and posting their design to their Facebook wall. Ross Glick, CEO of iNDELIBLE, the agency that created the campaign, was quoted in this Marketing Daily post as saying: "[Facebook] is where this demo engages most of their time, not only from a social point of view but from a commerce [point of view] as well. There's an opportunity here for Sears to not only improve their sales, but also to improve their customer loyalty programs."

The app does have a option for parents (moms) to utilize as well. Not sure how many college-age students would want their mom decorating their dorm room, but who knows. Mine just want my credit card!

BTW - Hope the folks at the agency can shrink these pages down in the app to fit Facebook's new smaller tab page size that they are putting into affect this Monday, Aug. 23rd. The date was finally announced while I was on vacation. Thanks Facebook!

Comments

[Vanessa]

Sears was always my go to place for nice and decently priced back to school clothes.

Also..(its a bit late)..welcome back!

[Marketing Resource Management MRM]

Amazing post...
Thank you for the post..