- Brian Morrissey

NEW YORK Sears is kicking off a new prom-dress campaign that lets shoppers share their selections with friends on Facebook.
 
Sears won't use Facebook's controversial Beacon system, however, opting instead for the social network's shared bookmarking tool commonly seen on news and information sites. Shoppers at Sears.com have the option of sharing one of about 70 prom dresses with their Facebook friends.
 
Choosing that option will either prompt users to select friends or place in their profile a photo of a model wearing the dress, along with a product description and message reading: "Look at this prom dress I found on Sears.com! Check it out and let me know what you think..."
 
"The main reason we chose Facebook is its popularity and the closed-door environment where the girl can connect with her friends," said Tania Dermin, a marketing manager at Sears.
 
The idea is for high-school girls to solicit feedback from their friends before making a purchase, said Tom Zanoni, group account director at WhittmanHart Interactive, the independent digital shop that crafted the campaign. The agency's research indicated that a prom dress is an important decision for girls, who want to get feedback from a circle of trusted peers beforehand.
 
By adding the Facebook option, Sears can extend the shopping experience into the social sphere that occupies a large chunk of young consumers' time, Zanoni said.
 
"The old model was expect people to come to your location," he said. "The newer model is going beyond the dot-com site to where the consumer is. This is one step in that direction."
 
Sears is supplementing the option with an ad campaign on Facebook running through April, targeted to the site's 2.4 million 15-17 year-old girls. It is also running in-store displays and signage to promote its "Prom Premiere 2008."
 
WhittmanHart crafted the campaign to leverage the idea that prom night puts girls at the center of attention, in much the same way movie stars are in the spotlight at premieres. The "Prom Premiere" site plays off that theme with runway music and by showing a crush of photographers vying to snap pictures.

Facebook ignited a privacy furor over Beacon, an application the site rolled out to let users share their activity elsewhere online with their Facebook friends. Despite being presented as an optional program, however, Facebook users need to opt-out of Beacon. With the bookmarking service, sharing product choices is an option alongside "send to a friend" through e-mail.
 
Sears is using the program to test whether the approach is a good way for the retailer to meld e-commerce with social networking, said Imran Jooma, vp, e-commerce at Sears.
 
"This is what I'd call a beginning," he said. "We're looking at the click stream to see what's being done on the site. We'll continue to expand this wherever the appetite is."