Cotton Inc. Takes the Show on the Road
August 25, 2009 
Stuart Elliot
The song “Dixie” located the land of cotton as “way down south.” A promotion, now under way, is also bringing cotton to points north, east and west.
The promotion, on behalf of the organization known as Cotton Inc., is visiting 15 markets around the country from Aug. 11 through Nov. 1. They include Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Milwaukee and San Francisco along with cities like Atlanta; Baton Rouge, La.; and Nashville.
The promotion is meant to support a campaign that is centered on the revival of the Cotton Inc. jingle from 1989, “The Fabric of Our Lives,” which during the 1990s helped sell consumers on the benefits of cotton clothing, linens, home furnishings and other merchandise.
The revival features the song being performed by three contemporary artists: Zooey Deschanel, in indie-rock style; Miranda Lambert, a country singer; and Jazmine Sullivan, in R&B style. The promotion offers shoppers visiting malls a chance to peek into closets filled with the kinds of cotton clothes the three singers wear — as well as a chance to try their hand at recording their own versions of “The Fabric of Our Lives.”
The traveling mall exhibit, with a budget estimated at $500,000 to $1 million, is aimed at women, particularly those ages 18 to 34. It is created by Jack Morton Worldwide in New York, a division of the Interpublic Group of Companies that specializes in so-called experiential marketing — that is, efforts to bring brands and products to life for consumers in the form of tangible experiences.
Experiential marketing is becoming more popular as advertisers try to form closer connections with current and potential customers. Another example is a promotion, Metropolitan Home’s Showtime House, a multimedia show home in twin penthouses in a building in Manhattan, co-sponsored by the Showtime cable channel and Metropolitan Home magazine in conjunction with Time Warner Cable.
“It’s a wonderful way to talk to consumers in an interactive fashion that’s not so one-sided,” says Paula Rosario, vice president for consumer marketing at Cotton Inc. in New York.
Cotton Inc. began working on experiential marketing programs with Morton about five years ago, Ms. Rosario says, as a way to “make our campaigns come full circle for the consumer.”
In this instance, shoppers at the malls will see what Ms. Rosario describes as a “two-sided pod,” 20 feet wide and 10 feet high, which was designed by Philip McDougall, creative director at the Morton New York office.
On one side of the pod is a walk-in closet with clothes hanging on racks, which visitors “can actually touch and feel,” Ms. Rosario says, as the current commercials for Cotton Inc. starring the three singers play.
The apparel items all have hang tags “talking about the fabric — cotton, of course,” she adds.
As the shoppers leave that side of the pod, “they’re given a printout telling them which stores are carrying the merchandise they just saw,” Ms. Rosario says.
(For those wondering, the garments are “representative of the personal styles” of the singers, she adds, rather than their real clothes, which would be “a little stalker-ish.”)
On the other side of the pod is the recording studio, which is identified by a sign that reads “COTTON AIR.” When someone is inside recording, five of those letters are illuminated, so the sign reads “ON AIR.”
The would-be recording artists are given the words to “The Fabric of Our Lives,” Ms. Rosario says, and can sing it in one of the three musical styles corresponding to the three singers.
The performances are “videotaped then and there,” she adds, and “can be e-mailed to themselves and five family members and friends.”
Five video clips will be selected as finalists in the Fabric of My Life Song Contest, to be uploaded to the campaign Web site after the mall tour ends for consumers to vote for their favorite. The winner will receive a four-day trip to New York and a shopping spree valued at $1,000.
For shoppers at the malls, the exhibit is “definitely a ‘can’t-miss’ space,” says Sarah Shulman, director for program management at Morton
“We very much wanted to make it something fun,” she adds, “something they can share with their friends and lends itself to viral marketing.”
The recording studio combines “karaoke and taking pictures of yourself,” Ms. Shulman says, which are “probably the two favorite” activities of the audience at which the promotion is being aimed.
“Our clients are coming to us for live events that engage people when they’re not in front of their computers,” she adds, in ways that “usually do drive them back to their computers” for follow-up activities.
For example, consumers who record jingles at the mall exhibit “can share their cool cotton songs on Facebook and MySpace,” Ms. Shulman says.
“They all feed each other,” she adds.
There is content on thefabricofourlives.com that complements the mall exhibit and song contest, including a tour of Ms. Lambert’s closet, a look at Ms.Deschanel’s “style book” and an exploration of Ms. Sullivan’s “style map.”
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