Old Navy

Group Delphi | San Francisco, New York City | 2011

For this unique interactive piece we enlisted longtime Lightswitch collaborators Group Delphi and video technology masters Applied Sciences to partner with us on the project.

What It Was

Retail leader Old Navy came to Lightswitch with a challenge – what could we conceive for window displays in their flagship New York and San Francisco stores, that would support five product lines ranging from ‘critter hats’ to ‘puffy jackets’ in a way that was interactive, fun, and distinctly ‘Old Navy’?

What We Did

For this unique interactive piece we enlisted longtime Lightswitch collaborators Group Delphi and video technology masters Applied Sciences to partner with us on the project. After several rounds of creative brainstorming, it was decided to explore interactive ‘image capture’ technologies. The team conceived a street facing video based display that attracts the passerby with an intro animation, then captured viewers faces, and inserted them in ‘Jib Jab’ styled, fun, interactive animations in store windows. The five product lines were condensed into two animated pieces, and interspersed with periodic rolls of Old Navy commercials. A stand-alone control solution was designed to allow these systems to run autonomously without impacting the store staff at the busy holiday season, and interfaced with a capture camera that would adapt to heights ranging from 4’6” to 6’ to allow the widest possible participant demographic.

Why It Worked

Combined with attention grabbing, exciting audio, the simple, intuitive ‘no tech’ user interface resulted in almost instant, fun feedback for the participant. This ease of use, combined with entertaining stylized ‘retro 50’s’ graphics made for an accessible, enjoyable and very ‘Old Navy’ experience, an extremely effective attract for the stores, and reinforced the Old Navy brand message. The success of the project could be gauged by the smiles and laughter it created. It worked by relieving a little of the stress of the holiday shopping season for parents, and adding a little fun for kids.