Small town campaign by maurices reaches an estimated one fifth of the population of the US

Small town campaign by maurices reaches an estimated one fifth of the population of the US

Maurices, a leading small town US speciality store has revived its brand and returned to sales growth, all through the power of music.

PlayNetwork, a global provider of creative and customised media solutions, created the “Small Town Sound National Band Search,” which has attracted a large amount of followers and enabled maurices to reach a new generation of customers.

Maurices is a small town speciality store aimed at the savvy, fashion-conscious girl with a twenty-something attitude. Today, maurices operates more than 760 stores in 44 states across the US.

Tailoring promotion to consumer

The retailer wanted to create, develop and execute a unique music promotion and online contest to run in conjunction with maurices in-store and social media fashion promotion, “Small Town Charm”.

“Small Town Sound” became a national quest for the best unsigned, up-and-coming female fronted musical act in the US. By combining fashion, music, social media, press relations (PR), attractive prizes, and a well-known line up of partner artists – Chrissie Hynde formerly of the Pretenders, The Bangles, and Sick of Sarah – to help with promotions and judging, PlayNetwork crafted an interactive, community-based, yet national promotion with music at the forefront. Strategic partner, Sonicbids, built the Small Town Sound microsite and helped to promote contest entries with their base of independent artists.

The Small Town Sound campaign cemented maurices’ place among savvy, fashion-conscious young women in towns across the US, with passion for style, music, and social networking. A total of 525 eligible bands entered and more than 63,000 votes were cast by nearly 77,000 site visitors.

The consumer reach with social media shares and promotional efforts via email, posters and ads, is estimated at more than 2.4 million. Additionally, more than 250 news stories appeared, in publications including Billboard, the New York Post and the Telegraph over the six months as the voting rounds unfolded with an estimated reach of more than 200 million.

The innovative, interactive competition strengthened maurices’ tie with its customer community and introduced the brand to thousands of new music fans, proving success can be achieved in the sweet spot where entertainment and retail meet.

“PlayNetwork is an amazing partner, their ability to bring concept, creativity, production and execution has proven their commitment for changing the way music, media, and brands all come together in an authentic way,” Lisa Bartlett, maurices associate vice president, commented.

Reaching campaign milestones

In September 2010, maurices kicked off the ‘Small Town Sound’ nationwide band search with The Bangles, Chrissie Hynde and Sick of Sarah, in a bid to find the next big female-fronted music group, in partnership with PlayNetwork and Sonicbids. It was created as an extension of maurices’ ‘Small Town Charm’ campaign, a cross-country photo shot which garnered immense support from local communities.

"The goal of this programme was not only to discover the hottest up-and-coming band in the country, but to continue building strong connections with the maurices communities," said Bartlett. "We pride ourselves on being the best small town specialty retailer so we look for every opportunity to reach these customers and celebrate the unique gifts and talents their towns have to offer."

Shoppers were given the opportunity to enter or vote and maurices stores played host to immersive Small Town Soundexperiences featuring PlayNetwork-produced music programmes, which included campaign partner artist music and Small Town Sound promotional messages, videos, web radio and the contest website, produced by Sonicbids; all provided a number of opportunities to engage with the brand and bands. Fans that voted received maurices coupons and were entered into a draw for a chance to win one of 13 maurices shopping sprees valued between $100 and $1,000.

The website for ‘Small Town Sound’ featured band profiles and audio tracks. “We were blown away by the number of female-fronted band submissions received for Small Town Sound,” Bartlett said. “We were looking for a way to connect with our small town communities and inspire women to take a chance on their dreams. The enthusiasm from artists has been fantastic and the fans got to vote and support their hometown favourites. Small towns inspire us, they’re the heart of America and we wanted to give bands with big dreams from small towns their breakthrough chance.”

Consumers voted for their favourite bands, narrowing the field to the top 50 musical ensembles. From these 50 bands, the judges narrowed down 10 finalists, who then had two weeks to create an original song based on the Small Town Sound theme celebrating American culture. The selected songs played in maurices stores nationwide and were also posted online.

Voting then reopened on the site, and consumers voted for a final time for the best original song to determine the grand prizewinner and two runners up.

Additional brand building opportunities

As part of the campaign, The Bangles partnered with PlayNetwork and maurices for an exclusive vinyl EP release, which was distributed by PlayNetwork, and available at maurices retail locations. The Bangles also headlined a South by Southwest (SXSW) ‘Girls Rock Austin,’ which was reported to be in the top five most requested events during the festival. The Bangles also headlined a daytime artist showcase with Sick of Sarah and the ‘Small Town Sound’ winning band.

"It's been great to be a part of maurice's ‘Small Town Sound’ and have a chance to discover some of the exciting new female musicians living and playing in towns all across the country. We had fun recording acoustic versions of a couple of our earlier songs and then doing an exclusive ‘maurices’ mix’ of a brand new tune to release on vinyl at the stores,” stated The Bangles.

“When we kicked off this campaign, our stores have filled with exceptional music from female-fronted bands from across the country,” said Bartlett. “We were honoured to give our audience exclusive access to new recordings by the ultimate girl band, The Bangles.”

After several months of competition, fans voted Illinois-based band, Audri & Aaron, through the final round and named them the hottest female-fronted band in the country.

“We’re thrilled with the outcome of this competition, as a brand we have deep roots in small communities and our goal was to find the hidden gems of talent within those communities,” said Bartlett. “The band Audri & Aaron is exactly what we were hoping to uncover.”

The ‘Small Town Sound’ campaign continues as maurices and PlayNetwork get ready to release Audri and Aaron’s winning song, Home, along with the music video; both were produced and recorded at the PlayNetwork Sherman Oaks studios located outside of Los Angeles, California.