April 12, 2011
Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana is asking consumers and fans to design a T-shirt for Kylie Minogue’s latest nationwide tour to grow the relationship between the brand and consumers by letting them associate with the musician.
Dolce & Gabbana and Ms. Minogue are accepting T-shirt submissions until May 11 and voting will be held May 12-17, with the winner selected May 18. The contest encourages consumers to create a T-shirt that reflects Ms. Minogue’s Les Folies tour.
“Partnering with personalities is always a great way for brands to enhance the life of their brand as well as their campaign,” said Kimmie Smith, designer, style expert and founder/editor in chief of Kitten Lounge, New York. “By doing so with Kylie Minogue, they get her fan base as well as theirs.
“It allows them to tap into a market that is beyond music and fashion,” she said. “She has a genuine base that would definitely enjoy making something for her to possibly wear.”
Ms. Smith is not affiliated with Dolce & Gabbana and Ms. Minogue. She agreed to comment as a third-party industry expert.
T time
Consumers can submit their T-shirt design at http://www.talenthouse.com.
Users can click on the “Get started” tab on the Talent House site to submit designs in jpeg format.
Founders Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana along with Ms. Minogue will select the winning design from the pool of entries. The 50 top-voted submissions will be considered.
Inspiration for the T-shirt design can be drawn from Ms. Minogue’s tour and her tour wardrobe designed by Dolce & Gabbana.
The selected design will be produced on a T-shirt which will be signed by Ms. Minogue and then worn by her in a photo shoot.
Once the winner is announced, the T-shirt will be featured on http://www.kylie.com, http://www.dolcegabbana.it and http://www.swide.com, which is the brand's blog.
The signed T-shirt will be given to the winning designer after the photoshoot with Ms. Minogue.
“Engagement is essential with any portion of a brand or campaign,” Ms. Smith said.
“People love when a brand selects them as a winner of something and being featured on a site, being tweeted, however, the opportunity for their design to be worn and pictured with this entertainer allows the ultimate bragging rights as well as an increase in a designer's portfolio as well,” she said.
Streaming fans
It would seem that Dolce & Gabbana is striving to reach a younger audience with the T-shirt contest.
Dolce & Gabbana has posted the recent news on its Twitter page, but to reach even more consumers and fans, posting on its Facebook page could benefit the brand.
Dolce & Gabbana Twitter posts
This recent T-shirt contents follows suit to the brand’s mobile application, Kylie, which showcases Ms. Minogue’s latest nationwide tour (see story).
The mobile application lets users discover the stage wardrobe that Dolce & Gabbana has created for Ms. Minogue’s tour.
“I'm sure within this campaign the winner will be included within the app or have tweets and recognition which allows the participant to become a part of the celebrity moment by default,” Ms. Smith said.
“It also creates a humanizing effect by both brands by having someone that may or may not be in any of the related industries have that moment and have a dream fulfilled,” she said.
Final Take
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