Yihaodian opens 1,000 virtual 3D stores overnight
Following the successful video series “The Best Choice,” Yihaodian, one of China’s leading e-commerce websites, has once again teamed up with Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Shanghai – this time taking the battle for China’s grocery shoppers ‘offline.’
In a guerilla stunt, Yihaodian has just launched 1,000 stores overnight. These stores are located at some of China’s most iconic landmark locations as well as directly in front of Yihaodian’s offline competitor brick & mortar supermarket stores.
The interesting twist is that these Yihaodian stores are not real brick & mortar stores. They are virtual 3D stores. Consumers can only see, visit and shop in them by using the Yihaodian Virtual Store App while being physically at one of the 1,000 locations.
These location-tagged virtual stores have just launched in iconic areas of Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Each of the stores is packed with promotional discount coupons and high-value, free gift vouchers that are just waiting to be claimed by shoppers.
Yihaodian Chairman Yu Gang said, “The most distinguishing feature of our augmented reality 3D virtual stores is its bringing online shopping to the offline world, combining the advantages of online and traditional retail through constant innovation. Not only is this one-stop shopping experience cost-effective, it’s a direct home delivery service that’s free from the restrictions of store location, shelf space and operating hours through its mobile and e-commerce capabilities. Consumers can enjoy the convenience of online shopping while still having fun purchasing from these virtual stores that are set up in residential communities, offices, parks, and even on the Great Wall.”
Managing Director of Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Shanghai, Yuan Yong said, “With this clever stunt we want to create buzz and raise awareness of Yihaodian’s more convenient shopping offer. While traditional offline retailers are desperately trying to move their businesses online, we thought we’d do just the opposite… and give the game an interesting twist.”
“The Yihaodian virtual stores are a world’s first. Never before have we seen GPS location tagged augmented reality buildings where consumers can actually go shopping. It works just like visiting a traditional offline supermarket. You enter the store and browse the aisles for products then buy them before you leave the shop. All this is possible with the Yihaodian Virtual Store App,” said Sascha Engel, National Director, Digital Lab – Ogilvy & Mather China.
The Yihaodian Virtual Store App can now be downloaded free in the Apple App store.
Credits – Creative Directors: Dirk Eschenbacher, Ali Grayeli, Sascha Engel. Art Directors: Dirk Eschenbacher, Xiaoming Lai, Eric Rong. Copywriters: Kweichee Lam, Rita Yang, Quetina Yang. Innovation Planners: Sascha Engel, Marc Violo. Agency Producers: Marc Violo, Tommy Pang. Account Service: Yuan Yong, Nicole Hu, Eden Wu, Minty Xu. Production house: Axis Creative Integration & Shi Shang Architecture.
3 Comments
Hey Sascha – It’s not a world’s first. This is has been done. The Airwalk shop being the most famous.
Good on you though, I’m sure it wasn’t an easy sell.
Well it’s kind of very different from Airwalk stores. This Yihaodian thing looks like real buildings in which you can go shopping and explore stuff. The Airwalk app simply showed a gigantic 3D shoe and nothing else, have a look at the video https://vimeo.com/22753630
It’s not even close to very different. One could say, it’s also a virtual store where you buy things.