Uniqlo
Uniqlo Vancouver Launch

The Goal

Global apparel retailer Uniqlo was set to open its first store on Canada’s west coast. To make the brand’s arrival from the other side of the world successful, it needed to make their brand relevant to Vancouverites.

The Insight

The campaign targeted men and women between the ages of 18 and 49 in the Greater Vancouver area. All around the world differences are creating divides, but in Vancouver differences don’t divide people, they compel them to work together naturally. Vancouverites masterfully demonstrate how scores of contrasts can co-exist. As city development expands, they protect parks and mountain views. As immigration challenges their cultural milieu, they welcome it – they fuse and adapt. As their tech industry booms, they focus on the importance of their art scene. Vancouver is a city with an unrivalled passion for technical apparel. The demand for clothing that makes life easier isn’t only for hitting the slopes and trails or practising yoga, Vancouverites insist on functional apparel for everyday life. This is what will influence a natural union between Uniqlo’s affordable LifeWear and Vancouverites making the best out of a challenging climate.

The Plan

To demonstrate how Uniqlo is a perfect fit for everyday life on the West Coast, the agency designed a campaign called “Natural Union,” which taps into the uniqueness of a city like Vancouver where natural and urban environments meet, cultures fuse and differences unite to create bigger, better things.

The campaign showcased how Vancouver’s endless contrasts unite in ways that only locals understand and appreciate. Some examples are showing how a Uniqlo’s water-repellent jacket blocks and breathes in fluctuating weather conditions, and how LifeWear fits sunrise and sunset, personifying the names of a neighbourhood and beach, respectively.

The team skewed away from using traditional fashion models and stereotypical influencers, and instead asked influential locals with deep roots in their communities to show their Vancouver, uncovering hidden gems and insider hotspots only locals would recognize.

The campaign’s unconventional talent ranged from barber (Farzad Salehi), up-and-coming skateboarder (Jason Wilson), filmmaker (Amanda Strong), award-winning artist (Carson Ting), pastry chef (Cham Sboual), actress and musician (Hayley Law), young entrepreneur (Yashar Nejati), restauranteur (Joel Watanabe), athletics trainer (Keighty Gallagher), online curator (Jeff Hamada) and brewmaster (Julia Hanlon). The music in the spots was performed by an emerging Vancouver band (Mesa Luna).

Technology and tools

The agency brought the campaign to life through a modular, digitally led design system based on a social media grid, creating 32 pieces of digital video content to run across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, each optimized with platform-specific aspect ratios. The hero video was used to drive broad awareness amongst those within 20km of the store location. This was followed by shorter product-specific cut-downs featuring one of the influencers. Interest-based targeting was used to funnel impressions to those most likely to connect with the featured local talent. We then retargeted those who had engaged with our content with harder-working carousel ads featuring the products and price points.

The Result

As a result of the campaign’s sequencing strategy, only those who had expressed interest in the brand’s content were targeted with lower-funnel tactics. All video content was optimized by device and by platform to ensure the most enjoyable viewing experience. In addition, all the creative was adapted in Chinese to connect with Vancouver’s diverse community. The agency ran sponsored articles in some of the city’s leading publications, enabling the brand to reach the publisher’s audiences in the form of content as opposed to advertising. The campaign’s video and OOH creative was shared across all social media platforms. The city celebrated on opening day, the opening lineup making headlines in every major Vancouver lifestyle publication including Daily Hive, Business in Vancouver, Vancouver is Awesome and the Georgia Straight. Since the launch, Uniqlo has opened two additional stores in the Greater Vancouver area.