Ted Baker utilizes multiple interactive technologies to promote his brand and to keep his customers engaged and enthralled
A Look at Ted Baker’s Interactive Window
I’m always intrigued when I see how retailers creatively integrate new technologies not only into their shops but also in other ways so as to enrich their customers’ experience. A good example is Ted Baker, a British fashion retailer, which has expanded its successful campaign, called Keeping up With the Bakers, by introducing several interactive storefront windows at one of its prominent London stores. People walking down Regent Street who come across the storefront are encouraged to touch the window, which allows them to become personally enmeshed in the lives of that now famous fictional family, the Bakers.
Using technologies that Nexus Interactive Arts developed for this project, pedestrians who happen to pass by the store can lay the palms of their hands flat in designated spots on the interactive windows. This activates cameras that photograph the so-called peeping toms who have just been caught in the act of supposed illicit voyeurism through the Baker family’s window. The peeping toms have their pictures integrated into an image with other members of the Baker family, and that composite image is then posted online on the company’s website. Customers who have taken part in this fun game are encouraged to share that image of them with the Bakers on various social media platforms.
The interactive store window complements the previously released interactive film, which was also titled Keeping up with the Bakers. The movie was made available to pique shoppers’ interest in the Ted Baker Spring/Summer 2017 collection. The film, which was styled to remind viewers of Desperate Housewives, the American sitcom that ran through 2012, as well as some of the more classic American sitcoms from the 1970s, such as the Brady Bunch, revolves around the Bakers, a fictional family who live on Tailor’s Lane and lead an enviously stylish life. They are always dressed to the tee in the best of Ted Baker’s fashionable collection. Viewers are encouraged to click on articles of clothes they see in the film to add them to their shopping cart. They are also made to feel welcome to sneak about through the Bakers’ house, where they can uncover hidden content that was planted by the film directors.
The interactive film was hardly a stand-alone in Ted Baker’s use of technological innovations to entice shoppers as well as to keep them playfully interested and engaged when it was first released. The brand also commissioned Poke, which is Publicis’s digital agency, to design for the Ted Baker Instagram channel a full-scale neighborhood in which the fictional Baker family lives. The Ted Baker brand then kept fans and shoppers engaged by offering daily challenges that they are encouraged to accept on Tailor’s Lane, where they can play the role of the Bakers’ nosy neighbor. The brand used Instagram’s story feature to announce the competitions’ winners and to introduce new content.
By integrating all of the above technologies — the interactive film, the interactive Instagram account, and the interactive storefront window technology — Ted Baker not only keeps its customers engaged in a fun way with the brand, but capitalizes on its interactivity to successfully market itself.
