The economy is bleeding.

This might be the biggest understatement I’ve made in a long time but follow along. The economy is in trouble and retail chains, which usually spend lavishly around now trying to convince us all we need to buy the latest and greatest widgets and whathaveyous are pulling back their resources and sealing their war chests in preparation for a long, cold winter.

That’s why I found Kmart’s latest marketing push to be particularly interesting.

What are they doing? They have given 6 top shelf social media personalities $500 dollar gift cards and asked them to write a post about their experiences with Kmart. These writers can write whatever they want, and must disclose at the top of the post what’s going on. Anyone who reads one of these posts and leaves a comment or Tweets about the campaign is entered to have a chance to win another $500 Kmart gift card. To sweeten the pot for the participating bloggers, Kmart is running display advertising across the IZEA (Social Spark is brokering this contest) network, which will drive traffic back to the participating bloggers.

Why is this such a great idea?

No, I don’t think bloggers are going to send thousands of people flocking to Kmart stores across the country, but I do think that by tapping the shoulders of the likes of Jeremy Schoemaker, Julia Roy, Loren Feldman, Michelle Madhok, Wendy Piersall and Chris Brogan they are buying themselves something priceless — a day pass into the world of Social Media.

Bloggers and Social Media marketers are startlingly proficient at taking relatively uninteresting brands and elevating them to relevancy, even if it’s only for day. Hype is our sword and buzz is our buckler and we wield them better than most. If all Kmart accomplishes by spending a tiny amount of money (under $10k, much of which is in tax friendly gift cards) on this program is to get a few early adopters to think about Kmart (instead of say, Wal*Mart) it’s worth every dime. When you add to that the fact that hundreds, if not thousands of people will be vying for these gift cards and tweeting and commenting about Kmart in general for the next few weeks you can start to see the value taking shape.

Let’s not forget, this is also a huge coup for Social Spark, which gets to show off all the strides they have made in forcing disclosure and adding transparency to the advertorial marketplace by getting well liked, well connected bloggers to put their reputations where their mouth’s are.

Which brings me to a point about a topic near and dear to my heart, advertising.

If you want to take a glimpse at the future of “new media” advertising, look no further than programs like this or similarly at Intel’s Insider program where Intel invites Social Media superstars to get behind the scenes glimpses at their events. Both of these programs shift advertising from collecting eyeballs to collecting voices, voices which in aggregate can generate buzz at levels much higher and for less money than display advertising could ever hope to. Considering how much money is being burned away on poorly placed display campaigns, this shift is all but inevitable.

The caveat to this brave new world is that in order for this to work, we all need to take responsibility for what we put our names behind. If companies are searching out content producers to help shill their wares, it’s up to us as content producers to have the wherewithal to say “no” when it’s appropriate. It’s also up to us to only take the deals that allow us to maintain control over our editorial voice and more importantly the deals that keep our readers as our top priorities.

In the final tally, it’s the same war that any sought after demographic (from athletes to movie stars) has with the advertisers that pay their rent, the battle between creative freedom and trucks full of cash. Programs like this are only the early stages of that battle, and it’s up to us all to ensure that we stay on the winning side.

(Images)