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Brief
77kids by american eagle® has enjoyed success as an online retailer since its launch at the end of 2008. In choosing to open brick-and-mortar stores, the decision was made to differentiate the brand by creating an environment that showcases 77kids’ “kid cool” fashion items, while also offering an interactive, entertaining shopping experience unlike anything else.
Strategy
The goal of R/GA’s partnership with 77kids was to design store experiences that are fun for kids and showcase the “kid cool” products that have been vital to the brand’s online success. Few children’s stores offer engaging interactive experiences as core elements of their retail environment. The ultimate aim is for children to have so much fun in the store that they’ll ask their parents to go shopping.
Drawing from a 15-year history of digital retail innovation, R/GA applied its iterative design process in developing each of the interactive features. Many experiments with cameras, equipment, and technologies were conducted over the course of the project. The iterative design process focuses on a combination of rapid experimentation and implementation with a parallel interaction and visual path. The focus is to always have something testable and working. The process included regular site visits to 77kids’ prototype store in Pittsburgh with ongoing tests of the interactive experiences to ensure that they worked with the store design and would be engaging for kids and parents alike.
Execution
R/GA created interactive touch screens that let kids play DJ, try on virtual outfits, and pose for photos and digitally draw on them. Kids can also play a “follow-spot” game that projects 77kids graphics on the store floor for them to chase. These interactive engagements make children want to spend time in the store and gives parents time to shop while they play.
R/GA designed and built all the software for the interactive touch screen and projectors. The agency also worked with 77kids to specify all of the hardware for the installations. Since the target age for 77kids is 10-year-old style-focused kids, all of the interactive is set at kid height so when the 10-year-olds walk up, they are in the right photo frame for pictures and the right height for trying on the fashion-posed styles. Everything was a custom build for this client, and hardware/software choices were designed to scale well so that 77kids could deploy the interactive features in multiple stores.
The installation includes high-end compact HD cameras that give digital camera effects, high quality photo printing for the kids’ pictures in the store, and camera-based motion sensing. The use of compact networked HD video cameras to deliver a real digital mirror feel and motion sensing cameras for the touch displays and interactive cameras is a new technique for this type of installation. The interactive elements are grouped into simple, rugged fixture designs so that they are easy to deploy in multiple stores.
Each store will have the following interactive elements:
- (2) 77kids 32” interactive touch screens. Using these screens, customers can:
o See their reflection in a digital mirror and interact with a make-believe world of animated characters.
o Select key 77kids outfits, which will appear virtually on the user like a digital paper doll.
o Play DJ and eventually select music to be played in the store.
o Pose for photos, which can be customized with personal messages and graffiti, then printed at the checkout area to take home or post in the store.
o Swipe 77kids loyalty cards to receive special offers and prizes.
- A follow-spot projection game which allows kids to try to step on 77kids graphics projected on the floor. There will be two projectors per store.
- A media server, which communicates in-store music to the interactive DJ panel and manages proof-of-play data for the music partner.
One of the main challenges was to build an updatable platform that enables the staff at 77kids stores to change and launch new styles, interactive messaging, scanned promotions, campaign elements, and applications according to each retail season in across multiple stores. There are no specific integration points with the website at this point, but that is the plan for the future.
Results
The stores have been opening to rave reviews from the press, parents, and most importantly, kids! Everything R/GA developed for 77kids was based on providing value and a fun experience to kids, in keeping with the retailer’s “Long Live Fun” brand statement. The interactive is an interactive platform upon which 77kids is excited to expand for each season and update as new technologies become available.
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