There’s a lot in the way of cute animation happening this festive period, with noteworthy spots from Hermès, Dolce & Gabbana and Cartier, as well as that big budget number from John Lewis.
Check them each out below:
Bonus: This is not quite a Christmas spot, but there’s a fun animation worth a watch from Louis Vuitton too. It pays tribute to games like Tetris and Space Invaders to promote its new iPhone and iPad cases just in time for the holiday season…
The big news over the past couple of weeks in the retail and fashion tech space was of course the concept of Amazon drones, but multiple other stories grabbed the headlines too. Here’s a highlight of the best ones…
Call me a softie, but Holiday Surprise from Kohl’s is one of my favourite campaigns this Christmas.
Based on the very festive theme of kindness, it’s a simple 30-second spot that sees a young couple rushing to decorate their elderly neighbour’s apartment before she returns to the building. It cleverly tugs on the heartstrings of all those viewing when it ends with a shot of the expression on her face once she does so.
Set to a cover version of Bob Dylan’s Forever Young, the lyrics set the tone: “May your wishes all come true. May you always do for others. And let others do for you.”
It’s a different move for the retailer, which, like many of its counterparts, usually focuses heavily on promotional messaging at this time of year. As AdAge reported, this emotional broadcast is in a bid to “stand out from the promotional maelstrom of the season”. While Kohl’s is still pushing its discounting alongside, this ‘brand’ spot layered in aims to be disruptive in a different way, said its chief customer officer, Michelle Gass. “We know what people remember are the moments of giving,” she said.
Though there are yet to be any postings, Kohl’s is also inviting consumers to share their stories of kindness over social media with the hashtag #ShowKindness.
Consumers are invited to flick personalised digital snowflakes onto the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue’s flagship store in New York this Holiday season.
The initiative, developed in partnership with creative digital agency, The Science Project, and sponsored by MasterCard, is part of the retailer’s wider focus on the legendary Yeti rumoured to reside on its roof making snow during the festive period, this year.
The Yeti Snow Workshop as this particular window is called, invites passersby to visit saks.com/snow on their mobiles where they can find out their own Yeti name, add it to a snowflake design and then flick it from their device to instantly see it gently falling down the window.
In-store those who spend over $150 or more with their MasterCard, can then receive a 3D-printed snowflake created by the MakerBot. Harry Cunningham, senior VP-store planning and visual at Saks, also told AdAge: “3D printing has been a big of late, so some of the figures in our window this year are actually 3D printed. As technology advances and as things move forward, we’re looking for opportunities to inject that into our process.”
Six of the other store windows depict different scenes of the Yeti’s life, from being “an under-appreciated snowmaker in Siberia to his starring role as a true snowflake artist in New York”. Each also features the hashtag #SaksYeti.
They were unveiled last week with a 3D light show mapped onto the façade of the store created by Iris Worldwide (as in the YouTube video below). It runs every seven minutes each night from 5-11pm over the Holiday season.
Given it’s the day before Thanksgiving in the US – meaning retailers are about to go all out on heavy promotions – here’s a special round-up of all the ways they’re using social and digital to help lure the seasonal shopper and start converting those all-important Holiday sales…
Hopefully by now you will have all seen, or at least heard about, John Lewis’ epic £7 million Christmas ad: The Bear and The Hare, created by adam&eve DDB.
The hand-animated tale has received an enormous 8.7 million views on YouTube since launch on November 8, and according to reports, helped drive sales of £101.45 million in the British department store in the week that followed, up 10.7% on 2012.
Despite the fact the spot premiered on TV in the UK during The X-Factor (played as an entire two-minute ad break), this campaign lives well beyond its traditional format. Here’s a breakdown of some of the more interactive ways how:
UK home furnishings brand, Cath Kidston, is running a cute campaign on its website in the run up to Christmas that invites shoppers to hunt through its pages to try and find Santa.
Every time they spot him they could be in with the chance of winning the products found on that page.
Based on the idea that Santa’s gone into hiding due to having too many wish lists to read through from the retailer’s main Christmas competition, the initiative sends fans on a hunt around its day bags, zip wallets, baby sleep suits and Christmas stocking fillers.
It is of course a clever move to get shoppers searching through the whole site, not to mention popping back on a regular basis, at a time when present inspiration doesn’t go amiss.
US online jewellery retailer, Bauble Bar, is running something similar for the festive season too. Email subscribers are being sent clues to “Buried Baubles” each day – items with serious markdowns hidden somewhere on the site. Meanwhile, its “30-days of Sparkle” campaign – as below – also sees daily discounts and offers being unveiled in the run up to Christmas.
Topshop’s campaign for the coming festive period sees Pinterest integrated both online and in its stores.
The British high street retailer has partnered with the virtual scrapbooking site in a bid to “showcase key product and facilitate the gifting process”, said its newly appointed global head of marketing and communications, Sheena Sauvaire.
“Dear Topshop”, as the initiative is called, sees a gift search embedded on its site allowing shoppers to explore by quirky categories such as “A gift that will wow”, “All things that sparkle” or “A bit of romance”. The results of each can all be pinned, shared and, of course, shopped.
Those pinned the most will be featured on the Topshop.com homepage daily.
Tying the campaign to the physical space, key products in store will also have a Pinterest call to action on their tags. Meanwhile, giant touch screens in the retailer’s flagship London and New York stores will likewise allow customers to pin, share and shop.
Staff in other stores will be wearing Pinterest t-shirts and carrying iPads in order to walk customers through the campaign.
Added Sauvaire: “Pinterest, being a strong visual platform, was the ideal platform as it allows our customers to collect products and inspirations to share with family and friends. Add the physical component, and we are creating true ‘social shopping’ during the festive period.”
Consumers are also invited to submit their own inspirational boards on Pinterest tied to the Holiday theme to be in with the chance of winning a variety of prizes including shopping sprees, front row seats to fashion week, and more.
A short break here means there’s a stack of content to catch up on. Below are the top links for stories surrounding fashion and digital during my recent fortnight of travels. Hours of fun…
fashion and mash 