Luxottica

Challenge

Eyewear-maker Luxottica was looking to make a lasting impression and build enthusiasm for their brands among the people most directly responsible for selling them to consumers.

Their annual immersion event series, which is aimed at educating frontline staff from retailers Optical Prescription Spectacle Makers, Sunglass Hut and Laubman & Pank on five of the company’s top brands: Ray-Ban, Bulgari, Dolce & Gabbana, Polo Ralph Lauren and Versace, serves as the perfect opportunity to reach this target audience.

For their 2017 immersion event, Luxottica was looking to create an interactive, immersive brand experience that drove the following key learning outcomes:

1. Raise awareness of each brand’s unique customer by inspiring Luxottica’s staff to ask targeted lifestyle questions in order to stimulate in-depth brand style conversations.
2. Reinforce brand guidelines among Luxottica’s ‘Style Advisors’ through immersive, interactive content and clear learning outcomes.

Insight

The event’s attendees were of diverse age groups from different socioeconomic backgrounds and from a spectrum of demographics. Some attendees were expected to be more engaged than others. Given this audience, we knew we could not use a one-size-fits-all approach.

The success of the immersion event extended beyond the event itself, as the brand training would help carry the brand forward in all interactions and conversations that attendees would have with their customers.

Idea

The idea we conceptualized was ‘The Full Story;’ A truly interactive and immersive multisensory experience that translated five different brand stories into a single engaging and super connected evening. Instead of ‘show and tell’ (plenary), we created an experience to engage and involve the audience through participation and interaction. An active rather than passive experience, The Full Story brought each brand story to life beyond just the features of the product.

Experience

To bring the brands to life, we built five unique environments that represented the core DNA of each brand. Within each brand zone, we included immersive experiences that helped to tell The Full Story of each. We used sensory touch points to enhance each brand story (smell, sight, taste, hearing and touch).

The roadshow took place in six cities across two countries between late March and early April 2017. Five lightweight set environments were specifically created to: 1. Tell a unique brand story, and 2. Travel as check-in luggage. Blank canvas spaces were sought out to deliver our unexpected multisensory experiences. Food and beverage was carefully paired with each brand to ensure the essence and messaging was reinforced. A supporting pocket guidebook helped reinforce the full story of each brand with product information, conversation tips, conversation starters, keywords and a note section.

Core Experiences for each brand included:

• Ray-Ban: A live music venue was created to pay homage to the brand’s roots;
• Versace: Light was used to create a provocative, powerful and passionate space. Donatella darlings (models showcasing top of the line Versace glasses and fragrance) flanked the entrance to the space;
• Dolce & Gabbana: An Italian streetscape was created to reference the brand’s origin and inspiration. An illustrator drew D&G sunglasses in each location to demonstrate the brands connection to handmade craftsmanship;
• Ralph/Polo: A preppy Hamptons-inspired garden party was created using live grass and trees to bring the smell of the outdoors inside;
• Bulgari: A live snake was brought to each location to shock and thrill attendees as well as communicate the serpentine inspiration for the brand.