Join Me at the Virtual Prom

I never went to Prom back in high school.  So, I remain fascinated with the whole thing.  Now that it’s here, I am jumping on the bandwagon of the Virtual Prom.

Retailers know the bucks are flowing at prom time.  Honestly the cost of things is out of hand.  Retail marketers always use every tool in their toolbox to recruit those prom dollars.  Now, getting kids where they live means going online!

Seventeen, long the magazine to flip through to find the perfect dress, has some JC Penney ‘How To” videos.  JC Penny is also hoping to capture prom shoppers with a Fan Page on Facebook.  It has 810,330 fans.  Why?    JC Penney tips on prom dresses

I didn’t see a coupon or incentive.  It’s the same stuff you would see on their web site, minus the shopping.  It’s stale and stagnant and I can’t imagine how it could draw nearly a million fans, muchless hold their attention.

An impressive & creative approach to getting the prom-goers attention is what Men’s Warehouse is doing at virtualprom.com.  All I can say is, “groovy”.  [Now if that doesn’t get me kicked out of the virtual prom, I don’t know what will!]

If you have heard your kids talking about the “Virtual Prom”, it’s a web site where you can design a prom. Invite your friends.  And you avatar will even do a funky little dance you can program from some ‘classic’ moves.  Even if you can’t moonwalk, you can in the virtual prom.  I fear it is a bit geeky for some of the digital kids who are used to the best graphics the video game world has to offer.   But ‘old school’ can be fun. And anything that’s about joining and sharing the experience, makes kids feel included and we all remember how important that was in high school [and beyond].

Virtual prom follows the current ‘best practices’ in online marketing:

• Find customers where they are … online
• Get them engaged … make their own prom, their own avatar
• Integrate an offer .. discounts for everyone who attends the online prom
• Keep the connection meaningful & strong. .. invite your friends to the virtual prom.

Some drawbacks:  the graphics are basic.  A maximum of 16 people can attend your prom.  And there’s a pretty prominent ‘come on’ for gaia interactive, I guess that’s who designed the program.

Since kids are seemingly impervious to the now traditional internet ads, the idea is Men’s Warehouse attempts to attract real life teens to blog & text & facebook and pull others into the virtual prom activity.  Then they give them real life discounts on tuxes.  They’re hoping it translates into tux sales or a longer commitment.  Their customer loyalty program [and maybe you, the real moms buying clothes for the real dads] they hope to get all the future sales of shirts and ties for graduation & senior pictures, maybe even their first job suit.

I have a request in to Men’s Warehouse to see how they are measuring the success of the campaign.  I’ll let you know.

To see the best [and the worst] of what might be showing up at prom this year, some popular links are: promgirl.com, Seventeen.com

Glam Prints are 'IN'

, Bestpromdresses, Micweddingdress.com, David’s prom, or this boring site for prom dresses.  You’ll see the grecian goddess and the very popular formal prints:

Get the wallet out now, you are going to need it.  This is not your momma’s prom.  Some of these dresses run from $300-$600 or more.

Even the ones you wouldn’t let your daughter wear!

And when the magical night is over, many girls feel they’ve gotten all the magic they can out of that dress.  Back in the day, girls used to trade dresses for major events.  Consider donating the dress to a good cause.  Fairy Goodmothers is an organization that matches dresses & accessories with girls who want to go to prom and can’t afford it.  Donating your dress to the chapter near you means that dress can bring magic to a night for another young woman.