Category: Live Communication

Adidas: adiVerse Virtual Footwear Wall

A footwear wall that behaves like ecommerce

The future of instore displays is here. With this example you will see how today’s instore displays are evolving to meet our online experiences.

Adidas has created an in-store digital experience that was described at the time as showcasing over 8,000 Adidas shoes. The technology can be easily deployed to allow almost any retailer to sell the entire Adidas product range without having to be a flagship store in a major city.

How the adiVerse wall runs in-store

The experience is defined by a large footwear wall, made of multiple LCD touch screens that use facial recognition to detect a customer’s gender on approach to the wall. The adiVerse virtual footwear wall then customizes the product experience for that gender, and helps guide them to the perfect shoe.

Alternatively it lets them browse the entire range of products, with each shoe rendered in real-time 3D.

Endless aisle is a retail setup where a store sells the full catalogue digitally, even if only a fraction of it is physically stocked on the shelf.

In multi-brand sporting goods retail, bridging endless-aisle breadth with guided discovery is the difference between “too much choice” and “the right choice”.

Why it feels like online shopping, only bigger

This is essentially ecommerce browsing translated into a shared physical surface. You can scan, filter, compare, and inspect details, but the store controls the pacing and the context.

The mechanism that matters is the blend of quick orientation plus depth on demand. The wall can help you narrow down, then let you dive into a single shoe in 3D with richer content when you care.

Content depth for the winners, speed for everything else

The most popular products in the range get the full content play, including videos, game stats, product specs and even twitter feeds. Everything else stays light, so browsing does not become slow or confusing.

This “tiered content” approach is a practical way to keep performance high while still making hero products feel premium.

The retail play hiding inside the screens

In the end customers can add their selected product into a virtual cart, and check out via an iPad that the store sales staff would have.

That last step is the business intent. Sell the long tail without expanding floor space, while keeping checkout and assistance inside the store experience.

The adiVerse Virtual Footwear Wall is an in-store touchscreen wall that lets shoppers browse a large adidas shoe catalogue, inspect products in real-time 3D, and hand selections to store staff for checkout via tablet.

What to steal for your own digital wall

  • Build an endless aisle that feels curated. Offer the full catalogue, but guide to a shortlist fast.
  • Use tiered content deliberately. Deep media for hero products. Lightweight data for everything else.
  • Make staff checkout the final bridge. Tablets in hand keep conversion human and immediate.
  • Design for “public browsing”. Big screens invite group decisions. The UI should support that.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the adiVerse Virtual Footwear Wall?

It is an in-store wall of touchscreen displays that lets shoppers browse a large adidas shoe catalogue, inspect products in real-time 3D, and pass selections to staff for checkout via tablet.

What does “endless aisle” mean in this context?

It is a retail setup where a store can sell the full catalogue digitally, even if only a fraction is physically stocked on the shelf. It expands choice without expanding floor space.

How does it personalize the experience?

It uses facial recognition to detect gender on approach and adapts the interface to that mode, while still allowing shoppers to browse the full range if they prefer.

Why does real-time 3D matter on a digital wall?

Because it supports confident decision-making in-store. Shoppers can inspect details quickly and compare options without needing a physical sample of every model.

What is “tiered content”, and why is it useful?

Hero products get rich media like video and deeper specs, while the long tail stays lightweight. This keeps browsing fast while still making winners feel premium.

How does checkout work in the flow?

Selections are handed to store staff who complete checkout on a tablet. That keeps conversion human and immediate, instead of pushing shoppers to leave the store journey.

What should retailers measure to judge success?

Uplift in conversion for non-stocked variants, assisted sales rates, time to shortlist, and basket size. Also track whether the wall reduces “too much choice” by increasing confident decisions.

Claro: Ringtowns

Turning coverage into something people can carry

Claro is one of the leading telecommunications companies in Guatemala and it faces a constant struggle to combat negative perceptions of their network coverage. So Ogilvy Guatemala created a campaign to counter these perceptions and communicate the wide coverage of Claro by involving consumers through their cellphones.

Imitating the sound of the traditional ringtones they communicated the names of towns and remote communities in the country. The campaign “Ringtowns” was based on local realities in Guatemala to create a strong sense of identity and pride, while communicating the wide coverage of Claro in an innovative manner.

The mechanic: make a town name sound like a ringtone

The product here is not a poster or a banner. It is a piece of audio people choose to install. Each ringtone is designed to sound like a familiar phone ring while “saying” a place name, so the coverage claim becomes something you hear repeatedly in daily life.

A “Ringtown” is a downloadable ringtone that encodes a specific town or community name into the audio, so the location itself becomes the message.

In telecom categories where coverage is questioned, making the proof travel through personal devices can outperform traditional persuasion because it shows up in real social moments.

Why it lands: social proof disguised as personalization

This works because it turns a skeptical claim. “We cover remote places.” into a personalized choice. If I download a ringtone that represents my town, then every time my phone rings in public, it signals both identity and reach.

That shift matters. It turns the coverage narrative from a corporate statement into a consumer-owned artifact that other people hear.

What Claro is really buying with this format

This is an awareness campaign that behaves like distribution. Downloads create repeat exposures. Call events create additional impressions. Sharing extends reach without extra media spend.

Most importantly, it reframes “coverage” from a technical map into a cultural map. Names and pride replace bars and statistics.

What to steal if you want participation without friction

  • Make the message a utility. If people can use it daily, frequency is built in.
  • Use identity as the opt-in. People adopt things that say something about where they are from.
  • Design for public replay. Ringtones happen around other people, which makes the message audible and social.
  • Keep distribution simple. Website download and text message fulfillment reduce barriers.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Claro’s Ringtowns campaign?

It is a mobile campaign that turns town and community names into ringtone-style audio. People download the ringtones, and every incoming call becomes a small, repeated reminder of Claro’s coverage.

How does it communicate network coverage without showing a map?

It uses place names as the proof. By turning remote locations into ringtones, the campaign suggests breadth of coverage through cultural recognition rather than technical claims.

Why is the ringtone format powerful for marketing?

A ringtone is repeated, public, and chosen by the user. That combination creates high frequency exposure with built-in social visibility.

What is the key participation mechanic?

Users download one of the “Ringtowns” from the Claro website or request it by text message. Installation is the commitment step that creates ongoing exposure.

What is the biggest risk if you copy this idea?

If the audio is annoying or the payoff feels unclear, people will not keep it installed. The artifact has to be genuinely usable, not just clever once.