A new campaign that begins this week from a partnership between Sears and Hearst, according to the NY Times. “Reimagine you” features wide variety of Sears products like clothing, appliances, tools and linens as well as branded Sears services like home maintenance and kitchen remodeling.
The campaign, with a budget estimated at 50-75 million, will include television, print, catalogs, signs and displays, as well as e-mail messages, video clips, blogs and other Web sites.
One goal for Sears is to sponsor “innovative, interruptive and integrated campaigns that challenge people’s perceptions” about the retailer and its offerings, Richard Gerstein, chief marketing officer at Sears, told the paper. “We have to do a better job of collecting our products and turning them into experiences,” he added.
Another goal, Gerstein said, is finding media companies “to partner with, to go to market differently,” rather than “buying pages for pages’ sake.”
Sears is teaming up with the Hearst Magazines unit of the Hearst Corporation, which is creating elements of the campaign like a Web site (www.reimagineyourself.com) and a 32-page booklet, “Reimagine You,” to be distributed with 13 Hearst magazines and newspapers.
Hearst will also add Sears-centric content to a Web site (thedailygreen.com) that is part of the Hearst Magazines Digital Media stable of sites.
Sears will make a significant digital buy on the websites of the nine Hearst magazines that will carry the “Reimagine You” booklet with their April issues. They include Cosmopolitan, O: The Oprah Magazine, Popular Mechanics and Redbook.
The booklet was also to be distributed with the Sunday editions of four Hearst newspapers: The Houston Chronicle, The San Antonio Express-News, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Times Union in Albany.
During the weeks that the “Reimagine you” campaign is running, the Sears creative agency of Y&R Chicago will produce ads that reflect the look and tone of the booklet and Web site being produced by Hearst.
Television spots feature editors and writers from the Hearst magazines. For example, one spot begins with an announcer saying, “Sears asked Popular Mechanics to reimagine the garage.”
