The Situation: Louis Vuitton has continuously revolutionized travel over the centuries, from creating ingenious closing systems in the 1800s, to turning travel trunks into treasure chests. With China’s borders closed in 2022, Louis Vuitton took its historical connection to travel to the next level by elevating exploration with large scale ambient media, in China’s popular cultural destination, the seaside town of Aranya for its SS23 show.

The Brief: As other brands cancelled offline plans in the face of uncertainty and strict lockdowns, Louis Vuitton was one of the few brands daring enough to hold a live show in 2022 China. They were keen to bigger than ever with this show and create more buzz than ever before.

The Objective: Build up awareness and buzz for Aranya’s SS23 show ahead of the day and on the day.

With Aranya as a location, there was an unparalleled opportunity to blend Louis Vuitton’s DNA which is intrinsically linked to travel, imagination and creativity with the town’s unique aesthetic, lifestyle, and community. Riding on this opportunity, the idea was to create experiences and activations that would synergize Louis Vuitton’s DNA with Aranya’s local hotspots in every way imaginable, whilst extending the experience nationwide through content and livestreams.

Target audience: The activation was focused around three audiences: VIP show attendees who are critical business drivers for the brand, attending the runway show to identify, reserve and purchase items on display, followed by affluent tourists in Aranya and viewers nationwide.

Approach: Synergize with Voyage in Aranya.

With borders closed, and sporadic lockdowns an imminent threat, consumers were hungrier than ever for hyper-local experiences and cultural currency. In this context, there was a unique opportunity to not only feed their hunger with one of China’s few live physical runway shows, but to go beyond the show, with hyperlocal experiences infused with Louis Vuitton’s travel DNA.

In September 2022, Louis Vuitton’s use of ambient media immersed Aranya in every way imaginable. Creating installations and a runway show on the beach-sand, enhancing the transportation experience with creative out of home on cross-roads, buses and even golf-carts and elevating exploration of the city through non-traditional outdoor installations in the town’s cultural hotspots and communities.

The activations didn’t stop on the outside, with the brand hosting Chinese independent artist screening inside Aranya’s cinema, contemporary dance shows and guided art tours in other major cultural locations, to even making a cup of coffee unforgettable.

Every activation was designed to create lasting memories of Louis Vuitton in Aranya, memorializing late creative director Virgil Abloh’s imagination and legacy in a way traditional media never could.

The ambient use of media, combined with it’s runway show installation on the beach sand madeLouis Vuitton the singular conversation in Aranya that mattered. The experience led to a strong impact on business, with search spiking 900% across top digital channels. [Please refer to the confidential section for sales and conversion data]

This campaign was a perfect demonstration of the impact the use of ambient media within a brand experience can have across the engagement funnel.