adidas & TBWA HELSINKI – Shop like it’s the Future

Case Study

BUSINESS SITUATION

Changes in user behavior and devices, have made consumers wanting more wowing experiences at all times. adidas wants to stay ahead of the competition by creating new and exciting shopping experiences to entice the discerning consumer of today. This mindset enabled creating an innovation that changed the brick shops forever.

SOLUTION

adidas and TBWA\Helsinki met in January 2012 to discuss how they could turn the windows of adidas stores into an interactive and digital experience. The solution should attract people into stores during the daytime, but allow the shopping experience to continue even after the stores were closed. Around this idea a cross-functional team from retail environments, brand marketing, eCommerce and ICT was build.

Collaboration between Symbio, adidas and TBWA\ Helsinki started in June 2012 as TBWA was searching a suitable technology partner to bring their ideas into reality. Symbio’s strong expertise and proven track record of building world class solutions with HTML5 and capability to scale delivery globally were the main factors for the collaboration.

Co-creation team consisted of creative, industrial and concept designers, software engineers and testing professionals. The process of creating something for the first time in the world involves a lot of trying and learning. Our teams worked together in close co-operation to experience conceptual and technical requirements and challenges. Conceptual design was experimented and technological solutions were presented to improve the usability. Multiple ideas were tested with real-life equipment and suitable solution was the fifth iteration. After 7 months of rapid prototyping an interactive life size digital window shopping was born for adidas NEO store in Nuremberg, Germany.

adidas Window\Shopping is part of the physical window and consists of a large touchscreen interface. It allows consumers browse through adidas’ current collection and try on the products on live size models. We also discovered very cool way user can buy products with their smartphone. Entering four digit pin opens a shopping back in the mobile where consumer can drag and drop the products they want to purchase. Consumers can also share their chosen favorites with their friends in social media.