ADIDAS | WINDOW SHOPPING | 2013
Shopping Starts "After Closing Time" / Adidas "WINDOW SHOPPING"
11pm, an empty street. A blue sneaker in the shop window catches your eye. But the store's closed—normally that's the end of the story. Adidas made it so you could shop just by touching that window.
The problem
In 2012, Adidas and TBWA Helsinki started talking about turning store windows digital. The goal: keep shopping going even after closing time. Online retail was growing fast back then, but the link to physical stores was still weak. What's interesting is that the technology came first, and only afterward did they land on the question: "Wait, doesn't 'window shopping' leave out the actual shopping part?"
The insight
At the heart of this idea was questioning a basic assumption of retail: that closing time means lost sales. If someone standing in front of a window could buy right then and there, a store's hours could stretch from 10 hours a day to 24.
The idea
They built a life-size touchscreen into the store's glass, letting people browse products, pick what they liked, and buy on the spot. No app needed—just type a URL and a one-time PIN into your phone's browser, and whatever item you dragged on the window would transfer straight to your phone. It took seven months to bring this to life at an Adidas NEO store in Nuremberg, Germany. They reportedly rebuilt it five times before landing on a version that actually worked.
What happened
The campaign won multiple awards at Cannes Lions Cyber, including Gold, as well as multiple awards at the Golden Drum. Up to nine in ten passersby interacted with the window, and one in four people who played with it ended up walking into the store.
Afterthought
What struck me wasn't the number of awards—it was how honestly they admitted the technology came first and the problem was found afterward. The ad industry loves to dress up a tidy story about solving a problem, but reality on the ground is messier than that. Sometimes the moment you realize "oh, we can actually use this for something" while just fiddling around turns out to be far more creative. A quiet window after closing time, still waiting for someone's wish list. In that scene, I think I see the future.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2013
