Lowe’s is known for its #LowesFixInSix short-form video campaign that delivers home improvement tips on Vine. So we decided to take #LowesFixinSix from digital to analog by creating the world’s first live, 3D, mechanical Vines. We installed them inside the store windows at the Chelsea store to stop passersby in their tracks.

We called them “Live Vines” and each Live Vine featured a tip for something specific to New York City living.

To stay faithful to the online Vine user experience, we added interactive “like” buttons and digital loop counters.

Because the loops were perfectly timed to six seconds, we marked a spot for people to film and upload them to Vine, so the “real world” analog Vine could also become a digital one across social media.

Executing Live Vines required different specialists, including miniature set builders, character designers, 3D modelers, and even a tailor who made clothes for the figures acting out the live Vines.

The main difference between the digital Vines and the analog version is physics: ideas for household tips needed to be executed in real time using motors and figurines, props and sets and needed to run nonstop for weeks.

Live Vines were made to look like digital Vines in every way from the character and set designs to the larger-than-life user interface. And each animated 3D diorama delivered a handy tip for NYC living.

The interactive “like” buttons and digital loop counters didn’t just stop people but got them to participate. And since they were short, six-second loops, they were easy to share on social media, which pushed them out far beyond the physical outdoor space.

In three weeks, more than 30,000 people physically pressed the “like” buttons. There were thousands of Vines, tweets, Instagrams and Snapchats, and over 34 million media impressions were generated.

All without spending a cent on traditional media.

New Yorkers immediately embraced Lowe’s, proving that a big-box suburban store could be just as adaptable to the City as New Yorkers are themselves.

The success of an online Vine video is measured in “likes” and loops (the number of views).

So when we devised the world’s first live, mechanical Vines in the windows of a soon-to-open Lowe’s Manhattan store, we knew they had to have the same measurability.

We designed and built interactive “like” buttons and loop counters that would capture this data in real time.

Then we marked the precise spot on the pavement for people to stand and frame the diorama on their smartphone camera so they could share the Live Vines across social media.

We wanted to make a big splash in a uniquely New York way, and attention quickly turned to integrating the city’s iconic Christmas window displays with a concept that we knew people already loved: #LowesFixinSix.

The new store is on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan’s busy Chelsea district, and by using the window displays, we could capitalize on the location to intercept the heavy foot traffic in front of the store. This was a new approach for Lowe’s since mostly all of its stores are in suburban locations without foot traffic. This was another way to help Lowe’s become “part of the neighborhood” in New York.

We knew we were talking to digitally savvy New Yorkers who live in small apartments. So the idea needed to connect with consumers on both those levels and be something people both talked about and shared on social media.

Lowe’s was opening its first two stores in Manhattan, and we needed a way to get busy New Yorkers to take notice.

Lowe’s is the world’s second largest home improvement retailer; mostly all of its 1800+ stores in the U.S. are in suburban locations.

So we also needed to demonstrate that a suburban big-box store could become part of the neighborhood and meet the needs of city apartment dwellers in just the same way.