Inspired by LEGO and the hippest streetwear outlets, We Are Social built a virtual fashion store completely created within an AR Snapchat lens.
Streetwear is a world of limited-edition drops, raffles for a place in the queue and drama on social for copping an item. It’s ruled by who’s first, who’s the smartest and most informed: the hypebeasts. We wanted to harness that desire for exclusivity by creating a unique and unexpected experience, fuelling their hunger for social kudos and peer recognition.
When LEGO Wear decided to launch an exclusive range of adult streetwear, we were tasked with driving demand for something they’re not known for. We had to make the launch of this one-off range a real ‘event’ for a whole new audience.
Nothing delivers limited edition drop quite like a pop-up. So, using Snapchat’s latest augmented reality (AR) technology, we created one that could pop up anywhere.
Inspired by LEGO and the hippest streetwear outlets, we built a virtual fashion store completely created within an AR Snapchat lens. The virtual store lived in a Snapchat Lens and pushed the boundaries of the 4MB limit beyond anything seen on the platform previously. In the store, you were free to look around and interact with the different elements.
Tapping the DJ changed the music and you could trigger actions from the cashier, store guard and various shoppers. Tapping any merchandise (T-shirts, sweatshirts and caps) opened a window that showed you the products in detail. At any point you could chose to ‘SHOP NOW’ and be taken through to the LEGO Wear site to purchase. A completely virtual, working fashion pop-up, created in LEGO, taking its cues from brands like Palace and Supreme.
The store went live at the start of London Fashion Week. On the day of launch, we also opened a ‘real world’ pop-up in central London which contained nothing but our Snapcode, creating a unique and memorable link between the physical and digital worlds of retail. This attention-grabbing stunt prompted discussions in the press and on social media about the future of retail.
A mixture of targeted Snap Ads and a place on the lens carousel drove traffic to the store and then on to the LEGO Wear site itself. Over 10 days of paid media, on a very modest budget, we sent 250,000+ shoppers through to the LEGO Wear site and accumulated over 15.8 million impressions.
The lens was shared 37,201 times and had an average play time of 19+ seconds, which is twice the Snapchat average. It also drove three times more swipe ups to the website than the Snapchat average.
The activity generated 41 earned articles in international, national and marketing media, including Forbes, GQ, The Evening Standard and Campaign.
This campaign’s success centred around bringing together some of the biggest trends and issues in retail at the moment. Firstly, the use of augmented reality to present merchandise to shoppers. The beautifully crafted and incredibly detailed store gave shoppers a futuristic, but fun experience that they were unlikely to have seen before. Secondly, the almost-empty pop up sparked conversation around the fall of bricks and mortar stores and future of shopping online. Combining these two elements helped drive significant conversation.
Alistair Campbell is Executive Creative Director for global social media agency We Are Social. Previously Creative Director for Guardian Labs, Alistair leads the agency’s creative vision and oversees the creative direction across its biggest clients including adidas, Netflix, Google, HSBC and Audi.
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