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.

GOL Airlines: Mobile Check-in banner you fly

Here is a pretty innovative banner ad from AlmapBBDO in Brazil for GOL Airlines. The banner challenges you to imagine what it would be like to “fly” on your mobile phone.

You submit your mobile number into the banner. Seconds later you get a live call with flight instructions. At the same time the page transforms into a flying game controlled directly from your phone keypad.

You then fly a virtual plane across a major Brazilian travel site while destination deals appear underneath the route you choose. Flying is simple. Touch numbers to change direction and trigger special manoeuvres. The ad finishes by reminding you that flying is easier when you check in via your mobile phone.

In travel categories where products feel interchangeable, interactive creative wins when it turns a service benefit into a felt experience in seconds.

A banner that calls you back

The key move is not the game. It is the phone call. The call instantly makes the experience feel “live” and personal, and it bridges the banner and the handset into one connected moment. Once the call happens, the user is no longer passively viewing an ad. They are inside a two-device interaction.

Standalone takeaway: This is a classic “message as mechanism” execution. If the product promise is mobile check-in convenience, the ad should make the mobile phone the controller.

The mechanic: second-screen control without an app

Most second-screen ideas fail because they ask people to download something or switch contexts. This one uses what every phone already has. The keypad. That choice removes onboarding friction and makes the interaction feel surprisingly accessible for a banner unit.

It also creates a clean narrative arc. Number entered. Call received. Instructions delivered. Game begins. Deals appear. The brand claim lands as the closing line rather than the opening pitch.

Why the “flying game” format fits the job

The game is not meant to be deep. It is meant to create one sensation. Control. When you steer the plane with your own phone, the ad makes the user feel that travelling with GOL is simple and manageable, especially the check-in step.

The destination-deal layer then gives the interaction a practical reward. Even if you are not in a playful mood, you still see useful information while you steer.

What to steal from this execution

  • Use a real-world channel as the trigger. A live call is stronger than a visual prompt because it changes the user’s state immediately.
  • Make the phone the interface. If you are selling a mobile service, let the mobile device do the work inside the experience.
  • Keep controls primitive and universal. Keypad inputs beat complex gestures when you need instant comprehension.
  • Reward the interaction with utility. Deals, destinations, availability, or next steps should appear as part of play, not after it.
  • End with the service tie-back. Let the experience earn the claim, then state it plainly.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the core idea of the GOL mobile-controlled banner?

You enter your phone number into a banner, receive a live call with “flight” instructions, and then control an on-page flying game using your phone keypad while travel deals appear as you fly.

Why does a phone call change the effectiveness of a banner ad?

It makes the experience feel immediate and real, and it creates a bridge from passive viewing to active participation without asking the user to install anything.

What category situations benefit most from this pattern?

Categories where the product is hard to differentiate visually and the benefit is “convenience” or “ease.” Airlines, ticketing, banking, utilities, and service platforms.

What is the biggest execution risk?

Operational friction. If the call is delayed, fails, or feels spammy, the experience collapses. Timing, consent clarity, and reliability are everything.

How would you modernise the mechanic without changing the concept?

Keep the phone as controller, but use a consent-forward trigger and fast connection method. For example, a one-tap call prompt or a verified in-browser handoff that still preserves the “live instructions” feeling.

KLM: Surprise

KLM launched a social media customer engagement idea that starts with a simple observation: waiting to board is boring, and “price messages” do not help anyone in that moment. So the brand looks for passengers who check in on Foursquare for flights or tweet about waiting to board a KLM service, then surprises a few of them to see how happiness spreads.

From check-in signal to gate-side surprise

The mechanic is straightforward. Someone publicly signals they are flying KLM or waiting at the gate. The team selects a passenger, scans what that person has publicly shared across social profiles, and chooses a small, relevant gift. Then they hand-deliver it at the airport gates.

In airline customer experience, social signals can be converted into small, high-salience service moments that strengthen loyalty without changing the core product.

Why this beats generic “engagement”

Many brands greet customers after a check-in, and that is already a best practice on location platforms. KLM Surprise goes further because it moves from acknowledgement to action. The passenger gets something real, in real time, in the same physical context where frustration often accumulates.

The personal touch is the product

The gift is intentionally small. The point is that it is specific. That specificity tells the passenger the brand paid attention, not that the brand spent money. It also turns the interaction into a shareable story because it feels improbable. Someone noticed me. Someone acted on it. Someone found me.

What the brand is really testing

Beyond the feel-good moment, this functions as a live experiment in social CRM: can public signals help identify passengers worth surprising, and can a human-scale intervention create disproportionate talk value? The campaign also quietly reframes “social media” as a service channel, not only a marketing channel.

What to steal for your own experience design

  • Trigger on clear intent signals. Check-ins and “waiting to board” posts are unambiguous moments where help or delight is welcome.
  • Keep the benefit small but specific. Relevance beats value. A perfect small gift travels further than a generic large one.
  • Deliver in the same context as the pain. Airport gates are where waiting is felt. That is why the gesture matters.
  • Make it operationally repeatable. A lightweight process and a small budget lets the idea run more than once without becoming theatre.

A few fast answers before you act

What is KLM Surprise in one line?

A real-time airport activation where KLM monitors public check-ins and tweets, selects passengers, then delivers small personalized gifts at the gate.

Why does it work better than simply replying on social?

Because it converts acknowledgement into action in the physical world, creating a stronger memory and a more shareable story.

Is the gift the main value?

No. The main value is the signal of attention and timing: “you were noticed” and “it happened right now when waiting felt longest”.

What is the transferable lesson for other brands?

Use public intent signals to trigger small, context-relevant service moments that are easy to repeat and easy for customers to retell.