Starting in 1931 as a women’s fashion shop in Duluth, Minn., maurices has grown to nearly 800 stores in 44 states across the country. WestmorelandFlint, our Duluth office, has had the honor of working with this leading small-town fashion store since 2005.
The goal: Earlier this year, maurices wanted to recognize the amazing women and small towns that are at the heart of our country.
The solution: maurices decided to conduct a nationwide search for fresh-faced girls of any age (over 18) and any size (maurices sells clothing in sizes 1-24), who embody what maurices is all about: fashion, fun and giving back. The maurices Main Street Model Search was born.
The model selection process: The contest launched in March, starting with a call for applicants and followed by a public voting period to narrow down the pool to 50. Next, maurices selected 20 and flew those girls to Minneapolis for a casting call. By May, 12 girls were chosen to model maurices clothing for three different seasons: Fall 2011, Holiday 2011 and Spring 2012.
The reward: Starting in June, the maurices team began flying to each of the girls’ hometowns, conducting a full-on photo shoot and presenting a check for $7,500 to each winning model’s charity of choice. These hometown visits will continue through January 2012. The models’ photos are currently being used for large in-store graphics, direct mail, online marketing and on maurices.com. Winners also received $1,500 in maurices clothing and a Flip video camera to capture their path to becoming a maurices model.
In addition, maurices surprised all of the models with an extra modeling opportunity. They all flew to Minneapolis for a special holiday photo shoot!
maurices Holiday Photo Shoot
The gals: Who better to explain the contest than the models themselves? Watch four Main Street Models talk about their experiences, as well as why they chose their charity:
The Flint Group’s involvement: WestmorelandFlint collaborated with the maurices creative team to design and develop the contest site, where all prospective models submitted applications and the voting took place. Our team worked closely with maurices on all phases of the project and managed the media outreach. This truly was a team effort—that is forever changing the lives of the 12 winners.
To learn more about maurices and the Main Street Models, find them on Facebook or YouTube.