Invisible Pop-up Store
Issue 18 | March 2011
Agency
Y&R New York
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director: Ian Reichenthal, Scott Vitrone; Creative Director: Graham Hall, Menno Kluin; Art Director: Alexander Nowak; Copywriter: Felix Richter; Global Director, Creative Content: Kerry Keenan; Producers: Jo Kelly, Devon Wilson; Executive Director, Content Production: Lora Schulson, Nathy Aviram
Date
Late 2010
Background
Nike wanted to relaunch the Airwalk JIM, an iconic sneaker from the 90’s, a design enhanced with never-seen upper materials. Tenny ball felt, shiny patent leather and pebbled basketball leather were combined in one sought-after design.
Now, in 2010, Nike relaunched the JIM through a strictly limited edition of just 300 pairs.
Idea
Y&R’s Branded Content division came up with the notion of the Invisible Pop-Up Store’, which made use of a free augmented reality application called GoldRun designed for the iPhone.
Once the app was downloaded, sneaker-lovers could reserve one of the limited edition pairs by going to one of the two Invisible Pop Up Store locations – Washington Square Park in New York or Venice Beach in California - and snapping a picture of the augmented reality shoe. Note that people were ONLY able to buy this sneaker if their GPS-enabled iPhone confirmed that they were within the confines of the invisible ‘store.’
Results
The online chatter drive traffic to Nike’s E-store, which had its had its busiest weekend ever. The media kept mentioning the Pop Up store story long after the actual event. It was featured on the Today Show in their trends for 2011 segment.
Our Thoughts
There is some really interesting stuff happening with smart-phones right now. DDB Stockholm flew images of burgers across a poster in Stockholm. If you snapped one on your mobile phone, you got a Big Mac free. This takes it a step further and I suspect the fact that people like me simply wouldn’t know how to bring up the image of the shoe AND snap it makes it even cooler. You have to be young, you have to be hip and you have to be in the know to find out about the shoes, let alone actually get to own a pair. It’s the halo effect, an ingenious way of selling a whole bunch of other shoes, which acquire coolth by association.