COACH global gets phygital with CONTEN.T

This post is sponsored by CONTEN.T.

Using bold visuals to showcase his ideas, Jean-Michel Basquiat was a prolific graffiti artist-turned-painter, whose work is highly sought after for the deep cultural meaning and exploration of African-American struggles.

Since his passing in 1988, his popularity among collectors has only grown. In an age where brands dominate our culture, one way an artist is able to immortalise their work within popular culture is through creative collaborations, and Basquiat is no exception.

COACH X Basquiat is a collaboration that is synonymous with counter-culture and the traditional approach to luxury. COACH, as one of the world’s fastest growing luxury brands, has shown to be a great match with the Basquiat aesthetics and messaging.

For the last leg of the showcase, COACH took on a phygital approach to its worldwide outlet roll-out with the help of its agency CONTEN.T, a digital production agency based in Singapore and Malaysia.

The campaign started with a digital AR experience across 20 countries featuring the iconic Basquiat Rexy, an iconic design for the COACH X Basquiat collaboration. This AR experience roll-out was done mainly to educate consumers on the collaboration, and the history behind it.

CONTEN.T created an AR version of the Pez Dispenser, an iconic Basquiat creation. The 3D Basquiat Rexy, with its crown, can be scaled and placed anywhere in your environment.

The most exciting part of the experience arrived in Malaysia with a unique AR scavenger hunt where visitors could embark on a quest to unlock hidden tokens within the COACH pop-up. Customers who successfully acquired at least three out eight tokens could redeem a special gift at the store.

Speaking to CONTEN.T, we learned this was one of its largest campaign roll-outs it has ever accomplished, which covered North America, Europe, and APAC.

Although the company has completed a number of projects within APAC, Jason Ang, managing director of CONTEN.T, said: “It was daunting at first when we thought about it in a global prospective, but we were mostly excited to take on the challenge.”

The top priorities of the campaign were the ideation, understanding the brand’s own objectives, along with usability and conversions.

CONTEN.T mentioned that during the first week of the campaign at the Johor Premium Outlets it had seen an average of 400 participants daily, and is expected to see more in Genting Highlands Premium Outlets, as the country opens up interstate travel restrictions.

To create an experience that embodied play and learn was one of the key things. The outdoor installation played a crucial role in attracting people, combined with a digital experience that made a perfect marriage of physical and digital.

CONTEN.T also shared that another key emphasis for this campaign, and many similar campaigns, was the importance in the ease-of-user journey. Executing the user journey correctly required a lot of AB testing to ensure the experience was intuitive. A scavenger hunt not done right can easily have a high user fall-out mid-way through the experience.

Its attention to detail is why this small digital agency was chosen to deliver the campaign for COACH. The space of physical and digital experience will become one of the key drivers of brand experiences in the future.

If you’re in Malaysia and interested to visit the experience the pop-up, the participating locations are COACH Johor Premium Outlets from 8 Oct - 17th Oct 2021 & COACH Genting Highlands Premium Outlets from 22nd Oct - 14th Nov 2021.