CASE STUDY Uniqlo - Contagious Magazine

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and map / uniqlo / 00 UQ 01 RE- THINK 01 COLLA- BORATE UQ UNIQLO / BRAND MAP / 01 804 STORES 01 UNI- SEX 01 01 / RECRUIT & REJUVENATE / REJUVENATE Uniqlo is Japan's leading unisex clothing chain, with 804 stores and a 2008 net sales forecast of ¥585bn (€3.5bn). Shares in its parent, Fast Retailing reported a five-year record high of ¥12,110 (€71.7) in July. This scenario certainly wasn't predicted after a failed expansion into the UK in 2001. Uniqlo had high expectations of its European launch, but was met with consumer indifference – largely because of a 'scattergun' approach to retail locations, the lack of a flagship store and minimal marketing activity in the key territory of London. This retreat forced the brand into a rethink, embarking upon a more collaborative approach to its identity and marketing that has since sparked a global success story. Rather than using a single agency, key figures (Kashiwa Sato, Markus Kiersztan¸ Yugo Nakamura, etc) from numerous creative disciplines, were recruited to rejuvenate every aspect of the Uniqlo brand, from store design to its digital presence. 02 SERVICE- DRIVEN 02 IN-STORE GALLERY 02 NYC 02 BASIC 02 CONTAINERS The UNIQLO brand philosophy has always been about creating a distinctly utilitarian, service-driven retail experience to reflect the basic prices but premium product quality. Prior to the 2006 opening of its global flagship store in Manhattan's fashion district, several shipping containers were hoisted into selected locations around NYC to serve as temporary outlets – the neatly folded stacks of clothing promoting the utilitarian perfection preached by the brand. Once the real store opened, the 36,000 square foot space showed a deliberate juxtaposition between the brand's Japanese heritage and a contemporary, culturally inclusive retail experience. After the lessons learned in London, this strategy shows that UNIQLO now approaches each new market tentatively and looks to gain a solid understanding prior to large scale-commitment. With plans already in place for Paris and Singapore, the company aims to triple its turnover in the next four years. 03 UNIQLO PAPER 02 / UTILITARIAN & UNIQUE / 03 / PAPER & PLASTIC / 03 UT 03 PLASTIC TUBES 02 MP CREATIVE 03 STREET- CAST Aligning the brand with the art and design industry, the UNIQLO Paper is a free in-store and online magazine conceived by MP Creative. 'More than a look-book', it features interviews with designers, local celebrities and artists to emphasise the brand's cultural relevance. An in-store gallery exhibited a range of 100 limited-edition T-shirt designs from 40 artists including Yayoi Kusama, Tezuka and Godzilla. This space was later used to house the first foreign installment of the brand's UT Campaign. Based on the successful UT Store in Tokyo this distinctly Japanese retail device sells limited-edition T's packaged in plastic tubes, providing a self-service system that is more convenience store than fussy fashion retailer. The campaign was supported by print, poster and in-store ads, featuring portraits by Terry Richardson. In spring 2008, the project launched on a global scale with Matt Irwin shooting 300 streetcast models in Tokyo, NY and London.
04 OXFORD STREET 04 HEROES 04 HOME GROWN 04 PEOPLE The re-birth of the brand in London's Oxford Street (200m annual visitors) was promoted by the 2008 incarnation of the UT T-shirt project, but also by a more cohesive version of the People campaign - first devised for the New York launch by Marcus Kiersztan of MP Creative, and Nicola Formichetti, creative director of Dazed & Confused. Focussing on local heroes and celebrities as brand advocates, the success of this egalitarian campaign relied heavily on it being adapted for each specific location. Therefore for London, home-grown British talent was featured such as eclectic rapper Dizzee Rascal, who also performed at the opening of the stores. The strap line 'From Tokyo to London' reinforced the idea that the brand was Japanese, but by working with British talent such as Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, actress Samantha Morton and Georgia Jagger, Uniqlo created a campaign for London that would resonate with Londoners. 05 INTERACT 05 EMBED 05 GRID Encouraging consumers to interact with the brand and participate with each other inside the digital environment has played a big role in helping the UNIQLO business expand by transcending cultural boundaries. Designed to reflect how the brand is constantly evolving in the hands of the consumer, the UNIQLO GRID microsite (designed by Yugo Nakamura's tha* ltd) allows users to manipulate the UNIQLO logo. This digital canvas is shared by thousands of other users across the world – making it a genuinely collaborative exercise. The UT LOOP is a flash-enabled site providing visitors with nine different UNIQLO representatives. Each comes with their own sample noise (shout, grunt, raspberry, etc), thus creating personalised mini dub loops which people can submit to the main site to be played at random as part of the 'People's Loop'. A 'Blog This' widget allows visitors to share and embed this collaborative device. 06 209 COUNTRIES 06 68M 04 / LONDON & LOCAL / 05 / LOGOS & LOOPS / 06 / CLICKS & CLOCKS / 05 THA*LTD 05 BLOG THIS 05 LOOP 06 contagious PROJECTOR UQ UNIQ LOCK 06 DRY IN MOTION 80 / 81 A monstrously addictive flash site masterminded by Projector, Tokyo scooped a coveted D&AD Black Pencil and both the Cyber Grand Prix and Titanium Lion at Cannes 2008. UNIQLOCK is an online clock that fuses entertainment, utility and interactivity. Operating 24/7, it marks passing moments with 5-second clips of female dancers clad in UNIQLO clothes that change according to the season. A downloadable UNIQLOCK is available as a widget for embedding on blogs, iGoogle or social networking profiles. Users can link to these embedded sites via a global map which details exactly how many people are watching UNIQLOCK worldwide. The site has been viewed 68m times in 209 countries – highly significant considering that the brand has stores in only a handful of territories. Projector's latest campaign, DRY IN MOTION, features gymnasts and is inspired by the way neurons fire in the brain when observing the actions of another human on screen.
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CASE STUDY Uniqlo - Contagious Magazine

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