“Beyond the walls of the boutique”
Coming on the heels of the launch of its Paris flagship in June, Kate Spade New York is experimenting with augmented reality to increase foot traffic during Paris Fashion Week.
In lieu of developing its own app, a process that is both time intensive and costly, Kate Spade partnered with Parisian media company My Little Paris on an integration within the lifestyle site’s existing mobile app. Available on Thursday, the program, titled “Joy Walks,” features a curated map of the favorite places of three Parisian influencers and bloggers. The AR technology is activated when users visit a featured location, each of which will appear on the app in the form of a popular Kate Spade pattern or image — flamingoes, taxi cabs and doves included. Users are encouraged to a snap photo of an experience at one of the locations and to post it on social media using the hashtag #katespadejoy. In doing so, they’ll be rewarded with an in-store gift when visiting the flagship store.
“We wanted to bring our brand attributes to life in a unique way,” said Kate Spade CMO Mary Beech. “We’re a brand filled with joy and optimism, and we had a lot of ideas of ways to execute. Very quickly, we narrowed in on AR, as it’s something we’ve always wanted to experiment with.”
What It Means:
In order to develop the AR experience, Kate Spade partnered with Paris-based technology company You & Mr. Jones. Julie Hardy, partner at the company, said the goal was to work with Kate Spade to celebrate the new store in a way that went “beyond the walls of the boutique.” As commerce channels converge between retail and online, more and more brands seek to interesting ways to engage customers in-store.
