ユニクロ | UNIQLO LUCKY SWITCH | 2009
Hijacking Other People's Websites to Turn Them Into a Lottery / UNIQLO "UNIQLO LUCKY SWITCH"
In 2009, the method UNIQLO chose to promote its year-end sale was a bold piece of advertising that took over other people's blogs and turned them into a lottery venue without asking.
The problem
Fast Retailing was marking its 60th anniversary, and it needed to announce its year-end sale. Banner ads at the time were just slapped up somewhere, ignored by everyone and kind of pushy. Instead of buying ad space, UNIQLO thought up a mechanism that people would want to install on their own.
The insight
People don't like ads that get forced on them. But if something is fun to play with, and benefits both the blog owner and the visitors, people will want to put the ad up themselves. UNIQLO called this "gratitude and giving back."
The idea
Click one small bookmarklet, and every image on the website you're viewing turns into a UNIQLO lottery—even if it's a competitor's site. A miss just shows a regular banner; a win gets you cashback or an eco bag. The technology itself wasn't hard. What was hard was getting approval for the pitch itself: "let's take over other people's websites."
What happened
The campaign got about 3 million clicks, and more than 4,000 blog badges were installed. Visitors to the online store reached 46,396, two to three times the usual number. Sales rose 120%. It won a Grand Innova Lotus at AdFest 2010. Droga5's digital director Brett Mitchell called it "a pretty audacious idea—putting your brand on someone else's site."
Afterthought
I remember clicking that button over and over on a blog I used to run. Back then, I was just simply amazed that such a thing was even possible. The idea and the execution are both impressive, but what impresses me most is the client who approved a plan built on "borrowing other people's space"—fully prepared to take the heat for it.
