SHOOT FROM THE HIP

As autumn took hold of New York these past few weeks, a concept within a Concept brought the spirit of Paris to the streets of Manhattan. The Gap White Space Concept Store underwent a transformation once again. This time, the A Squared Group team was charged with recreating the magic of Merci – a Parisian concept shop – in Gap’s White Space, for consumers on this side of the Atlantic.

As always, the White Space provided us a perfect blank canvas with which to play.

The Merci boutique may be unfamiliar to those who haven’t ventured to France within the past six months and au courante on all international fashion and design trends. That makes it even more exciting for us to be able to help introduce Merci in the United States. It is an eclectic mix of haute discoveries, vintage pieces and a melange of items in between. It is a vibrant, unpretentious shop with an artistic vibe – a great match with Gap’s aesthetic.

We captured that spirit, with all its whimsy and great attention to detail, to produce a memorable experience for visitors to the Gap Concept Store.

Consumers who enter the Merci Gap shop would never guess that only days before Anna Wintour and the denizens of New York’s Fashion Week celebrated its opening, a denim-themed story highlighting Gap’s Born to Fit campaign lived in the space. Or that, just weeks earlier, we had built a yoga studio environment and brought in yoga gurus to teach classes. As with those that came before, the Merci experience was fleeting. We are already at work to transform the Gap Concept Store into a new incarnation. Stop by 54th and 5th when next you’re in the city, to see the latest developments.

Pop-up stores are a fantastic way to launch or reinvigorate a brand. When executed correctly, they capture the essence of the brand in a concentrated way. Their impermanent nature creates excitement. They provide consumers an intimate and unique interaction with the brand. What happens, however, when a well-known brand wants to completely shift how consumers see it? Does the pop-up shop work for that, too? The answer is an emphatic YES. The new 1969 Pop-Up, which A Squared Group created for Gap, Inc., is a perfect example of the transformative, buzz-creating, and sales-generating power of a well-crafted pop-up experience.

Gap, Inc. has been known for its denim since the company’s inception in 1969. In the past few years, however, a new wave of “premium denim” has taken the fashion world by storm. Gap sees an opportunity to compete with the Rock & Republics and True Religions with its newly redesigned 1969 Premium Denim, but needs to shatter consumer assumptions that a) premium denim needs to cost a premium, and b) Gap isn’t premium. A Squared Group has stepped in to address the challenge.

The 1969 Pop-Up is designed to generate a visitor experience for consumers that transports them into the world of high-end fashion while highlighting the core principles of simplicity, quality and straight-forwardness for which Gap is known. The keys to the 1969 Pop-Up’s success, and to the success of any pop-up, are location, decor, clarity of branding and inspired dashes of fun and surprise. With these elements in place, the consumer experience can be magical.

We built 1969 on Robertson Blvd., directly across from The Ivy. This is a high-end fashion nexus and center for celebrity fashionistas. It is the “must shop” strip of boutiques for anyone seeking premium clothes.

We created a striking, clean and simple space. It is all about the denim. Gap branding has been kept to a minimum; initial consumer impressions are based solely on the product. Visitors to the store are drawn in by the decor’s subtlety, embrace the premium denim ambiance, interact with the quality product, and feel they’ve uncovered a secret when they discover that their new favorite fashion finds are Gap. The visitor experience is utterly unique.

Consumers have flocked to 1969. The buzz is fantastic. And sales are phenomenal. It has been such a success, in fact, that Gap, Inc. and A Squared Group are looking into ways to extend the experience.

1969 has most definitely popped!

A Squared Group is in San Francisco at the moment, having just produced an incredibly successful, buzzed-about keynote address for Motorola at Mobilize 09. We had the opportunity to hear all about the new Motorola CLIQ and MotoBlur before anyone else, as we created content for the event and worked with Dr. Sanjay Jha to prepare his announcement to media, industry leaders, and tech savvy regular Joe’s throughout the world. The Motorola CLIQ and MotoBlur use cutting edge technology to make consumers’ lives easier and better. We love being able to bring that news to the public.

New Motorola CLIQ

The energy here in San Francisco is electric, and people can’t wait to get their hands on the new phone. That is why, in addition to developing the keynote, A Squared Group has created an interactive experience for key industry experts and leading international media to do just that, later today. These select individuals will be able to check out every aspect of the phone’s bells and whistles, while simultaneously seeing how others respond to the device, in a relaxed and realistic environment rather than in a controlled “testing” space. We expect a lot of texting to happen, and excitement about the new products to grow even further.

Follow feedback about the announcement by using hashtag #Moto or #Blur, and put this little baby on your holiday wish list. I know it’s on mine.

For the first time in the history of the New York Stock Exchange, traders were wearing jeans today. Not just any jeans. Gap 1969 Premium Jeans. Over 1200 traders dressed down for the first “casual Friday” ever on the floor of the NYSE. And A Squared Group was there to ensure that every pair of jeans was a perfect fit.

The NYSE is known as a high-pressured environment where a traditional, conservative uniform is maintained. Traders at one time even wore bowler hats on the floor. The 40th Anniversary of Gap, Inc., however, is a significant achievement and needs to be celebrated in a big way. It is an iconic brand. While simultaneously holding celebratory events at select stores throughout the country, A Squared Group has been in New York for more than a week to ensure that every single trader can honor the company’s success and relevance in the marketplace by wearing the new Gap 1969 Premium Jeans collection.

The traders couldn’t be happier to oblige.

In addition to turning the floor of the NYSE into a sea of denim, Gap’s North American President, Marka Hansen, along with select members of the founding Fisher family, will remotely ring the Closing Bell for the company headquarters in San Francisco. We wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Eating an ear of steaming hot, freshly-roasted sweet corn is one of the many joys of summer. So is spending a sunny summer day, or 10, mingling with friends – old and new – in a festival environment. Who can forget either? We certainly won’t. A team from A Squared Group is in the midst of the inaugural Progressive Insurance “Corn for Kids” Tour, a months’ long road trip to festivals around the country, on behalf of our client.

We are visiting places as diverse as West Virginia, South Dakota, Colorado, and California, to name a few. We are making and serving delicious roasted corn to those we meet at each stop, fundraising for hungry children and presenting festival-goers with a unique, memorable experience associated with our client, Progressive Insurance.

Our client has been to these festivals before. After all, the attendees are their target consumers. But they’ve never done it like this. So far, it’s been a bushel of fun – for everyone from brand loyalists to those unfamiliar with the company. Even corn-loving kids not yet ready for their first Harley are taking notes.

The A Squared Group team couldn’t be happier. We love creating memorable experiences for consumers. We love helping them develop fantastic associations with our clients’ brands. We love seeing relationships strengthen between brand and consumer. And we love all the smiling faces that let us know we’ve just been part of a memory in the making.

So, who’s up for some corn?