Every Holiday, Macy’s celebrates the spirit of believing with “Yes, Virginia,” the story of the famous New York Sun editorial: “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” It usually inspires millions of kids to mail letters to Santa at Macy’s. And Macy’s donates $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation charity for each letter posted.This year, we wanted to make that experience more magical, so we developed the Macy’s Believe-O-Magic augmented reality app. After downloading the app, families could bring Virginia and her friends to life in 3-D via the magic of augmented reality by pointing the their mobile devices at a special markers in every Macy’s store nationwide. Families could take Holiday photos with the characters and share these cards on Facebook, Twitter and via email. Ultimately, Santa received nearly two million letters – up 19% from 2010.Their parents raised same-store Macy’s Holiday sales by 6% versus the prior year.Macy’s was named 2011 Mobile Marketer of the Year by the Mobile Marketer Awards.

And nearly $2 million was donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.*please note that the client has updated the current spot in the iTunes store with another app. However, based on the URL you can see that this where Believe-O-Magic app lived during the holiday season.

In addition to its status as an iconic American department store, Macy’s is famous across the country as an entertainment brand, captivating young and old with its 4th of July Fireworks, the Thanksgiving Day Parade, and more recently, live-streamed, star-studded music and fashion events from its flagship store at Herald Square in New York City. The Million Dollar Makeover was an ideal vehicle with which to extend Macy’s status as one of the nations mass entertainers.Macy’s target audience is women 18-54, the majority of them active social media users. Facebook was chosen as the method of promotion since it was the most pervasive in the social stratosphere, and it’s platform allowed for a rich experience via videos, updates, photos, a custom voting module, etc.

In the end, only one Macy’s shopper received a makeover, but millions of others watched, commented and voted. Macy’s gained more than a million new Facebook ‘likes’ and over 321 million media impressions. After a successful first season, TLC picked up the show for a second season to air April 17, 2012 with two planned encore airings.