• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, October 1, 2012

Still a little vague on how all this social shopping actually works? So are most consumers. So OpenSky.com is launching its first-ever ad campaign, with TV spots slated for national cable TV programming.

Themed “Join. Shop. Love,” the 30-second spot takes viewers on a quick tour of a chic home, blitzing through the kitchen, bedroom, and living room, pausing on an item and explaining which OpenSky celebrity “insider” chose it.  (The ad includes, for example, Tom Colicchio’s favorite type of honey, Shaquille O’Neal’s preferred phone, and the rose water Mariel Hemingway loves.)  “From tastemakers to trendsetters ... your favorite people’s favorite finds. On OpenSky, experts hand pick the products they love, so you can love them too.”

People have constant near-brushes with social shopping all the time, whether via Facebook, eBay, or Pinterest. But for all the predictions that it will be the next big thing, it’s an e-commerce trend that has yet to gain widespread traction, despite social media’s enormous influence on shopping behavior. And while Facebook’s social sales have been a bit of a bust thus far, it’s an area that shopping giant eBay has targeted, earlier this year buying up Svpply, a New York start-up that relies on merchandise curated by its experts, like OpenSky.

OpenSky has some 1.5 million members, and has until now relied on Facebook and event marketing to get the word out. For this effort, it tapped Santa Monica, Calif.-based DW+H, specifically charging it with beefing up the fledgling site’s appeal among foodies. Among its chef insiders:  Bobby Flay, Padma Lakshmi and Andrew (“Bizarre Foods”) Zimmern. 

Aimed at women 25 to 45, with $70,000 of household income or higher, the campaign offers a new sign-up offer of $20 toward a user’s first purchase, as well as free shipping, and is running on the Food Network, HGTV, Bravo, Style, Cooking Channel, TLC, E! and DIY Network. 

Meanwhile, the pool of e-commerce cash that sites like OpenSky could draw from is still growing fast. eMarketer predicts that U.S. holiday-related online sales will hit $54.5 billion this year in 2012, up 16.8% over last year.