To launch a collaboration between luxury fashion house, Loewe, and Studio Ghibli’s Oscar-nominated anime film, Howl's Moving Castle, we created an interactive version of the film that attracted and engaged a global fanbase.

For the first time ever, fans can interact with iconic scenes from the movie, moving through six handcrafted scenes, and making decisions as they go. The site then pairs users with a character from the movie that best reflects their personality.

Howl's Moving Castle is a 2004 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli.

Howl's Moving Castle is considered a masterpiece of animation and a cornerstone of Studio Ghibli's filmography. It continues to be popular with audiences of all ages and has been praised for its enduring message of hope and finding strength in the face of adversity.

Howl’s Moving Castle is technically innovative, exemplifying the power of craft as a bridge between the old and new – a creative approach that Loewe is proud to share. In the collection, Loewe pushed creativity with bold, intricately crafted pieces designed to bring the world of the film, literally, to life

In 2023, Loewe launched its final collaboration with Studio Ghibli. The Loewe x Howl’s Moving Castle collection features the film’s key characters adorning clothing, bags and accessories.

We were tasked with bringing fans of Loewe and Studio Ghibli together through their shared passion for craft, storytelling and beauty to raise awareness of this exclusive collection.

The characters in Howl’s Moving Castle are driven by emotion - it is what guides their decision-making and actions, and ultimately defines them as individuals. We wanted to draw upon these moments of choice and transform them into interactions and decisions for our fans to make.

‘Let Your Heart Guide You’ takes users on an emotional journey through Howl’s Moving Castle, letting them make choices through interactions that ultimately determine which character their heart most aligns with.

Our strategy was to leverage fans’ passion for Howl’s Moving Castle by giving them a unique, shareable experience that would take on a life of its own and reach a wider audience through social amplification.

An exclusive mobile experience that takes fans on a journey where they must follow their heart. Users move through six, hand-crafted, interactive scenes from the movie, each offering a different choice for them to make.

Each scene celebrates a moment from the movie that relates to a choice being made. The scenes start with a quote from the film relating to emotions and decisions, before fading away to reveal the scene and instructions. The site then takes people’s instinctive choices and pairs them with a character from the movie that best reflects their personality.

To launch the experience, a hand-illustrated QR code designed to look like the character Calcifer was placed in stores, on art installations and in-store pop-ups worldwide. A full loewe.com takeover and WeChat integration were also developed to drive fan interest around the world.

The results have been phenomenal. With zero media spend, the site was visited by over 1.1 million users worldwide and 30.8% of all visitors went on to share the experience.

Once arrived, fans stayed in the experience for an average dwell time of 3 minutes 18 seconds.

17.5% of fans went on to explore the collection, which sold out in days.