2021 Winner
SilverBest Use of Technology
Harry Rosen
"Green Screen Shirt"
Zulu Alpha Kilo
"Green Screen Shirt"
Zulu Alpha Kilo
For 70 years, Harry Rosen had built its luxury menswear brand on a high-touch retail approach. When men needed impeccable suits for the workplace, they would visit the store and talk to their “guy.” The COVID-19 pandemic turned that approach upside down. Stores closed, Harry’s business shifted to online, and Harry’s customers’ sartorial needs shifted as well.
Even as lockdowns eased in June 2021, 4.7 million Canadians were still working from home, a group in which Harry Rosen’s typically office-dwelling customers were dramatically overrepresented. While entire skyscrapers stood empty, the “dress for success” culture of business menswear eased. The new virtual business culture freed many men from the suit and tie. But all those Zoom calls posed a problem for men who wanted to express their personal styles. The insight: Harry Rosen’s ability to send a fashion signal in the virtual world is limited to one item and one item only: their shirts.
As the pandemic continued, Harry Rosen risked losing relevance. But perhaps the casual dress code was an opportunity to build relevance rather than a threat to it. Harry’s challenge: maintain brand affinity and keep Harry Rosen top of mind to drive online sales and bring people back into stores when they opened up again.
With no media budget to spend, Harry set an ambitious target of 40,000 organic video views on Instagram. Whatever Harry did would need to earn buzz on its own merit.
Harry Rosen’s Green Screen Shirt provided men with a wardrobe solution that absolutely
nailed the zeitgeist.
They began by engaging Harry Rosen’s master tailors to manufacture a shirt in fabric of the precise shade of green (PANTONE® 354 C) needed for green screening. By hitting the Green Screen checkbox on the Zoom platform and choosing a pattern, a wearer could instantly change the design of their shirt. There was no special software to install; the functionality was already built into Zoom.
Knowing the luxury market loves a fashion drop (the release of limited-edition products in highly select environments), Harry chose Instagram for the shirt’s debut. Because there was no paid media budget, the campaign was launched as an organic contest only on Harry’s Instagram feed. To win a shirt, men had to tag two people and Like the post. A custom landing page on HarryRosen.com promoted Harry’s latest fashion innovation and gave instructions on how the shirt worked while prompting visitors to shop the latest arrivals. The shirts were ready just in time for Father’s Day, traditionally a big day
for Harry Rosen sales.
Harry’s Green Screen Shirt brought a surprising new twist to a platform that was quickly becoming all too familiar. In the first months of the pandemic, the number of total minutes spent on Zoom went from 100 billion a year to two trillion a year. We’re all living in a Zoom world, engaging with friends, family, and co-workers through video calls. And as the pandemic wore on, many people began playing with some of the fun features Zoom has to offer.
Harry was among the first brands to take advantage of a behaviour that was increasingly established among even the most technophobic. This is particularly notable for a brand and a category (menswear) that is traditionally thought of as staid and conservative.
The shirt that will never go out of style created quite an impression. The video generated more than 111,000 views on Instagram, the brand’s highest viewership ever and nearly three times its follower count, with zero paid promotion. All the shirts were immediately claimed in the contest. With hundreds of requests to purchase the shirt, Harry’s is exploring a product rollout. It was the most engagement Harry has ever experienced for a contest. Global press coverage included Ad Age, Adweek,
Little Black Book, AdForum and Reddit.
Even as lockdowns eased in June 2021, 4.7 million Canadians were still working from home, a group in which Harry Rosen’s typically office-dwelling customers were dramatically overrepresented. While entire skyscrapers stood empty, the “dress for success” culture of business menswear eased. The new virtual business culture freed many men from the suit and tie. But all those Zoom calls posed a problem for men who wanted to express their personal styles. The insight: Harry Rosen’s ability to send a fashion signal in the virtual world is limited to one item and one item only: their shirts.
As the pandemic continued, Harry Rosen risked losing relevance. But perhaps the casual dress code was an opportunity to build relevance rather than a threat to it. Harry’s challenge: maintain brand affinity and keep Harry Rosen top of mind to drive online sales and bring people back into stores when they opened up again.
With no media budget to spend, Harry set an ambitious target of 40,000 organic video views on Instagram. Whatever Harry did would need to earn buzz on its own merit.
Harry Rosen’s Green Screen Shirt provided men with a wardrobe solution that absolutely
nailed the zeitgeist.
They began by engaging Harry Rosen’s master tailors to manufacture a shirt in fabric of the precise shade of green (PANTONE® 354 C) needed for green screening. By hitting the Green Screen checkbox on the Zoom platform and choosing a pattern, a wearer could instantly change the design of their shirt. There was no special software to install; the functionality was already built into Zoom.
Knowing the luxury market loves a fashion drop (the release of limited-edition products in highly select environments), Harry chose Instagram for the shirt’s debut. Because there was no paid media budget, the campaign was launched as an organic contest only on Harry’s Instagram feed. To win a shirt, men had to tag two people and Like the post. A custom landing page on HarryRosen.com promoted Harry’s latest fashion innovation and gave instructions on how the shirt worked while prompting visitors to shop the latest arrivals. The shirts were ready just in time for Father’s Day, traditionally a big day
for Harry Rosen sales.
Harry’s Green Screen Shirt brought a surprising new twist to a platform that was quickly becoming all too familiar. In the first months of the pandemic, the number of total minutes spent on Zoom went from 100 billion a year to two trillion a year. We’re all living in a Zoom world, engaging with friends, family, and co-workers through video calls. And as the pandemic wore on, many people began playing with some of the fun features Zoom has to offer.
Harry was among the first brands to take advantage of a behaviour that was increasingly established among even the most technophobic. This is particularly notable for a brand and a category (menswear) that is traditionally thought of as staid and conservative.
The shirt that will never go out of style created quite an impression. The video generated more than 111,000 views on Instagram, the brand’s highest viewership ever and nearly three times its follower count, with zero paid promotion. All the shirts were immediately claimed in the contest. With hundreds of requests to purchase the shirt, Harry’s is exploring a product rollout. It was the most engagement Harry has ever experienced for a contest. Global press coverage included Ad Age, Adweek,
Little Black Book, AdForum and Reddit.
Credits
Agency: Zulu Alpha KiloChief Creative Officer: Zak Mroueh
Executive Creative Director: Wain Choi
Art Director: Anton Garneau, Michael Romaniuk
Writer: Luke McNeil, Marco Buchar
Account Team: Michael Brathwaite
Client: Harry Rosen
Clients: Trinh Tham, Kristin Meier, Paul Michel
Producer: Christine Taranco
Production House: Zulubot
Production Producer/Technical Advisor: Adam Palmer
Editor/Colourist: Felipe Chaparro
Photographer/Videographer: Kyle Wilson, Matt Watkins
Creative Director Harry Rosen: Christine Kwan
Photo Retoucher: Jim Tinios