UNIQLO | LUCKY LINE | 2011
The Day the World's First Line Formed Online / UNIQLO "LUCKY LINE"
In 2011, UNIQLO brought the "line" online. Turning that familiar sight of people queuing outside stores from 6 a.m. into a virtual experience on Twitter and Facebook was, at the time, an unheard-of move.
The problem
For UNIQLO's special sales, the challenge was driving people from the web to physical stores and building excitement ahead of the sale. In 2009, hundreds of people actually lined up outside stores starting at 6 a.m. In 2010, that "line" moved online, evolving into an effort where people could virtually line up using Twitter and Facebook. At a time when social media was rapidly spreading, UNIQLO understood its nature and set out to turn the experience of "waiting" for a sale into entertainment.
The insight
With the motto "turn the line into entertainment," the goal was to create a site where waiting itself could be enjoyed. Lining up had long been a signature part of UNIQLO's sales, so by recreating that online and building in a mechanism for sharing, they turned it from mere waiting into an experience people wanted to share with friends. The idea precisely captured how social media works—the loose connections of Twitter and Facebook, and the spreading power of retweets—designing something where simply taking part became something worth talking about.
The idea
They created a virtual line called "UNIQLO LUCKY LINE" on UNIQLO's website, which people could join by tweeting or posting on Facebook. Anyone who posted joined the line and received a discount coupon usable in physical stores. On top of that, a lottery among the participants in the line offered prizes like coupons, an original "Line T-shirt," and a trip to Japan. Since your own avatar appeared in the line on the site, and you could see other participants' posts, it created the excitement and sense of togetherness of a real-life line.
What happened
More than 2.2 million people joined the virtual line in total: 180,000 in Japan, 630,000 in Taiwan, and 1.3 million in China. "UNIQLO LUCKY LINE" briefly became the number one trending topic on Twitter worldwide, lines formed outside physical stores as well, and UNIQLO reportedly hit sales of over 10 billion yen in a single day. The campaign swept up awards worldwide, including Gold at Cannes Lions, a Gold Pencil at The One Show, a Graphite Pencil at D&AD, and the Grand Prix at ADFEST.
Afterthought
What's amazing is the idea of turning something as potentially tedious and boring as standing in line into entertainment for the social media age. The design connecting digital and physical, and the mechanism for spreading the word, were both groundbreaking for their time—and best of all, it's beautiful how it actually translated into real business results. This is a campaign that could only have worked in 2011, but as a masterpiece that truly grasped the essence of social media, it deserves to be remembered and talked about even now.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2011
