Digital windows promote Polo

Harrods ralph laurenRalph Lauren has taken over the 15 window displays at Harrods on London’s Brompton Rd to support the launch of its Polo Ralph Lauren line using mobile proximity technology.

To mark the designer’s expansion to now include Polo for women, Ralph Lauren is striving to connect with shoppers via their smartphones by offering exclusive and interactive content, as well as out of hours shopping opportunities.

Combining the Near Field Communications (NFC) and QR codes provided by loyalty and NFC payments company, Proxama, each window displays large vinyl lenticulars and stickers allowing consumers to tap or scan the display to initiate a landing page on their smartphones.

In doing so, shoppers are offered an interactive map guiding them to the Fashion Lab, a new area within Harrods where the Polo women’s collection is located.

The landing page also links to the Harrods mobile website so that shoppers walking by the window display can access the collection when the store is closed.

Both Ralph Lauren and Harrods will be able to track the progress of the campaign in real time.

Guy Cheston, Harrods media sales director said Harrods is keen to explore new ways for brands to interact with customers while they visit the store.

“Customers are using mobile and digital technology more and more. It’s great to be able to reach out to passersby even when the store is closed and build brand loyalty and excite customers into the store, or for a return visit,” said Cheston.

It is the second time Harrods has used mobile proximity digital initiative, and follows on from the success of the Harrods Handbag Narrative campaign in 2013, which resulted in more than 400 downloads in a few weeks.

“Luxury brands are well known for being conservative, rightly protecting their precious brand values. A few years back, it was a challenge to get luxury brands to promote via digital screens instore due to sensitivities over adjacencies with competing brands, but this is not an issue any longer. They see the impact, and high value in such a dynamic medium which drives retail sales instore,” Cheston said.

Miles Quitmann, CCO, Proxama said the combination of a luxury fashion brand and a globally recognised department store demonstrates the versatility of this type of technology.

“By offering consumers the opportunity to find the Polo range instore and online, Harrods is combining its physical and digital assets, reaching consumers through the channel of their choice. Initiatives like this are relevant and connect with today’s digital shopper to help enhance confidence in this technology, as it becomes more widespread.”

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