HomeGoods Takes Shopping Outside With Larger-Than-Life Installations

Never Shop The Same

HomeGoods' platform is built around a simple truth about the brand's shopping experience.

You never quite know what you are going to find.

The retailer offers a constantly changing combination of products, styles and unexpected discoveries.

The Chicago activation takes that idea and makes it physical.

Everyday home products become oversized visual installations, turning familiar objects into something surprising in the middle of the city.

The store experience becomes an outdoor experience.

Turning Everyday Objects Into OOH

The activation demonstrates how retail brands can use physical environments to create attention beyond their traditional storefronts.

Instead of relying exclusively on conventional advertising formats, HomeGoods is placing its products directly into the urban environment at a scale designed to make people stop, look and interact.

The installations become both advertising and an experience.

Consumers can see them, photograph them and participate in the activation rather than simply passing by a traditional advertisement.

A QR Code Hidden In Plain Sight

The experience also includes an interactive layer.

Each installation features a signature HomeGoods tag suspended from the oversized item.

But instead of a traditional barcode, the tag contains a QR code.

Visitors can scan the code using their mobile device and are directed to a landing page where they can learn more about HomeGoods and unlock a special reward.

The experience includes a $5 Lyft discount that can be used toward a ride to a nearby HomeGoods store.

The activation therefore creates a direct connection between the physical installation and the retail location.

From The Street To The Store

The activation does not stop at generating attention.

Its design creates a path from OOH exposure to digital interaction and ultimately to a physical retail visit.

A consumer sees the oversized installation.

They notice the HomeGoods tag.

They scan the QR code.

They receive the offer.

And they can use the Lyft discount to continue the experience at a nearby HomeGoods store.

The street becomes the first step of the shopping journey.

Adding A Reward To The Experience

Participation also comes with physical rewards.

Visitors can receive a HomeGoods tote bag while taking part in the activation and unlocking the special surprise.

This gives the experience another physical element that can continue beyond the installation itself.

More importantly, the combination of a physical reward, QR interaction and retail incentive gives consumers multiple reasons to engage rather than simply photograph the campaign.

Why The Activation Works

HomeGoods' Chicago campaign connects several behaviours in one simple experience.

It uses scale to attract attention.

It uses recognizable home products to communicate the brand.

It uses QR technology to create interaction.

And it uses a retail incentive to move people from the activation toward a store visit.

That combination makes the campaign more than a large outdoor installation.

It becomes a physical extension of the shopping experience.

Final Thought

HomeGoods' latest activation shows how a retail brand can take a familiar shopping proposition and turn it into something people can experience in the real world.

�Never Shop the Same� is no longer just a statement about what happens inside the store.

In Chicago, it becomes a larger-than-life outdoor experience that invites people to stop, interact, scan and continue their journey to a HomeGoods location.

Created with Fallon, the campaign connects OOH, experiential marketing, digital interaction and retail into one simple consumer journey.

Sometimes, the best way to tell people that shopping will be unexpected is to give them something unexpected to find on the street.

Sources

• LBB Online � Fallon