Oscar de la Renta to Host Focus Group

Oscar de la Renta wants to know what their fans are thinking.  Erika Bearman, the brand's media personality and senior vice president of global communications, is set to host a focus group next week reports WWD.  The company is gearing up to launch a "top secret" product specifically aimed for cyber space and the twist?  Bearman will select the participants via Twitter.

Following Oscar de la Renta's pre-fall runway show in New York City Monday evening, Bearman tweeted to her almost 168,000 Twitter followers: "beauties, help me with something? I need a focus group made up of my followers" with a link to her Tumblr page with a message that read, "I need you. I'm working on a top-secret project and I need a focus group. Tweet @OscarPRGirl with the hashtag #shhh in the next 24 hours and tell me why you would be my perfect confidante." 

The above message also appeared on the homepage at oscardelarenta.com, and was posted on Facebook and Instagram. "We're working on a product that is going to be targeted to our social audience, so who better to help us make some of the decisions about that product than the people that we're targeting it to?" Bearman said after the show. 

So far over 1,000 have applied via Twitter.  Bearman and her team plan to narrow it down to a lucky 12 within the next few days for the Dec. 18 focus group. "It's the first time we're doing anything like this, but my feeling is that it's going to be extremely valuable insight," Bearman added, noting that this could be something the brand plans to permanently implement into its digital strategy.