2022 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Harry Rosen is renowned for luxury labels and for outfitting men in impeccable suits. For 70 years they have built the brand through a high-touch retail approach, with men able to visit stores and have their needs attended to by their “guy.” The working world turned upside down due to COVID-19, as most men in their target were confined to working from home. Stores closed, and they had little need for anything resembling a suit and tie as even the best dressers reverted to casual fashions. The brand was at
risk of losing relevance.

The agency’s objective was to maintain brand affinity and keep Harry Rosen top of mind to drive traffic to their e-commerce offering. They saw an opportunity in embracing the more-casual dress code. Fashion reflects the times and, right now, the times are digital, as we all engage with each other via video calls. Our ability to send a fashion signal in this environment is limited to one item: our shirts. So, in a time when we’re spending our lives on these calls, wanting to look our best but still be comfortable, why not demonstrate Harry Rosen’s style leadership by outfitting men with a shirt made for the moment?

Harry Rosen’s Green Screen Shirt launched to provide men with a wardrobe solution tailored for the digital environment. The shirt was manufactured in fabric made of the precise shade of green needed for green screening, all in partnership with Harry’s master tailors. With one click, wearers could change their shirt to literally any design all within the existing functionality of Zoom (no extra
app or extension required).

Knowing the luxury market loves a fashion drop, they chose Instagram for the shirt’s debut and approached it as a contest. The launch was announced with a video demonstrating the shirt’s ability to match its background with an eye-popping array of vibrant patterns matching Zoom backgrounds. To win a shirt, men had to tag two people and Like the post. The shirt came with a digital kit of downloadable shirt colours and patterns. A custom landing page promoted Harry’s latest fashion innovation and gave instructions on how the shirt worked while driving visitors to
shop the latest arrivals.

The shirts were ready for Father’s Day, traditionally a big retail day for sales. In early June, the campaign went live with the message that you could “change” instantly for any video chat – business, casual or whatever the occasion – this shirt would be perfectly suited to it. All the limited-edition shirts were immediately claimed in the contest. There were so many requests to purchase that Harry is now exploring a full product rollout to keep up with demand. The post generated 112,000 views on Instagram, the brand’s highest viewership ever, all with no media budget to spend, and was the highest engagement Harry has ever experienced for a contest. The campaign received global press coverage (5.5+m media impressions) including Ad Age Editor’s Pick, Reddit, Adweek,
Little Black Book and AdForum.

Credits

Agency: Zulu Alpha Kilo
Chief 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/Technical Advisor: Adam Palmer
Editor/Colourist: Felipe Chaparro
Photographer/Videographer: Kyle Wilson, Matt Watkins
Creative Director Harry Rosen: Christine Kwan
Photo Retoucher: Jim Tinios