- Elaine Wong

Aeropostale is hoping to drive traffic to its 770 retail stores with a new CD and T-shirt promotion in collaboration with pop rock band Plain White T's.

Starting Sept. 23, the New York-based casual apparel retailer will give out a commemorative T-shirt to shoppers who purchase the band's new Big Bad World album, which comes out the same day. The T-shirts, retailing for $15.50, will be distributed through Oct. 12. According to Aeropostale, there are more than 50,000 tees in stock.

Scott Birnbaum, Aeropostale's svp of marketing, said the retailer is always looking to partner with companies or bands that fit the demographic it sells to—that is, high school teenagers. "If you look at the music genre, we're much more pop rock as a [retailer]. It's what our kids listen to," he said.

The promotion also includes free downloads of the song "Love at 10th Sight" by Plain White T's. (The band is best known for its single "Hey There Delilah," released in 2006.) To redeem the online offer, consumers must try on a pair of Aero jeans at a retail location starting today through Oct. 12.

This is the second time Aeropostale has partnered with a rock group, having previously collaborated with Fall Out Boy on a similar promotion. Aeropostale gave away free T-shirts with each purchase of Fall Out Boy's Infinity On High album. Birnbaum said the company plans to form more music deals in the future.

Aeropostale spent $1.4 million on advertising in 2007, and $400,000 through June of this year, excluding online, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

Jim Wisner, a retail and marketing expert at Wisner Marketing Group in Libertyville, Ill., said the Plain White T's promotion is a way for the band to expand distribution into a non-traditional channel. He added, "What you're giving away is really a billboard. It's saying: 'Come in and buy the album and by the way, as a reward, you get to advertise it to everyone else.'"