SHOOT FROM THE HIP

Drums and cheering could be heard throughout Manhattan this past weekend as the Gap Cheer Squad and Drumline rocked their way from Harlem to the South Street Seaport to Battery Park and beyond. New York was the first stop on a tour that aims to encourage people to have fun and make this year’s festivities extra special and memorable. The A Squared Group team embraced this project as a great opportunity for the Cheer Factory idea, made famous in numerous Gap ads this holiday season, to hit the streets and reach consumers in a personalized, spontaneous and incredibly exciting way.

Traveling via a dramatically branded bus from point to point, the Cheer Squad and Drumline surprised crowds of lucky pedestrians along their route.

The show they put on – complete with fun and clever cheers, boundless energy and death-defying tricks – entranced everyone within sight and hearing. Surprise gifts were given to unsuspecting pedestrians lucky enough to catch the show.

The A Squared Group team loved watching people’s reactions as Cheer Squad members fearlessly flew into the air.

The festive, communal spirit was tangible.

If you are in Chicago, Los Angeles or San Francisco in the coming weeks, keep your eyes and ears open. The Gap Cheer Squad and Drumline are coming your way.

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!

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.

If you have been following us for long, you know that every month or so A Squared Group creates a vibrant, dynamic and interactive new experience in the White Space, also known as the Gap Concept Store. This space is adjacent to Gap’s flagship store at 54th and 5th in Manhattan. The transformation of this space is always exciting, and provides Gap an opportunity to introduce new ideas and products to both Gap loyalists and every day New Yorkers alike. This summer, the space has been busier than ever – highlighting the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists’ reimagining of khaki, Gap Pure Body and, most recently, the latest Gap (PRODUCT) RED endeavor.

Anyone walking by the Gap Concept Store is immediately struck by the juxtaposition of what is happening inside to what is happening out on the street. The space provides an oasis from the hustle and bustle of everyday New York life.

During the first few weeks of July, for example, the space became Gap’s Pure Body Studio. The new Gap Pure Body line of layering essentials adorned the walls, in soothing colors. New Yorkers were invited in – to escape from the chaos of daily life, to acquaint themselves with the super-soft new clothes, to quench their thirst with refreshing flavored water, and to simply pause for a moment of fun exploration. They were also encouraged to sign up for free yoga classes – to be held in the space and to be lead by top yoga gurus Ashley Turner and Sadie Nardini, respectively.

On two consecutive Saturdays, lucky yoga class participants were able to relax in a bubble of calm, and improve their Downward Dogs under the gentle guidance of experts, while the rest of New York frantically raced by outside. Additionally, they gained free Harmony yoga mats and blissed-out smiles.

By all accounts, it was an amazing experience for beginners and pros alike.

Prior to hosting the Gap Pure Body Studio, the Gap Concept Store housed inspired designs by CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Finalists Alexander Wang, Albertus Swanepoel and Vena Cava’s Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai. This year’s finalists were challenged to rework Gap’s iconic khaki fabric. Their achievements, along with captured quotes conveying their thoughts about fashion, resulted in a crisp, monochromatic look and adventurous vibe.

If you walk by the Concept Store today, however, you may think it is an art gallery. Actually, you would be correct. A collection of artwork, created to inspire Gap’s new limited edition series of Artist Inspired T-Shirts in support of (PRODUCT) RED, is now on display. Consumers have the opportunity to view over 20 original pieces, from 10 established and up-and-coming artists, in the laidback environment of the Concept Store. Within the same heartbeat, consumers can see the artists’ visions captured on soft Gap T-shirts, which they can touch, feel and own. Fifty percent of profits will be donated to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS in Africa.

Each installation is fun, hip and interactive. It catches consumers by surprise and stirs their imagination.

But it is never around for long! So, have a look while you can.

We’re just days away from reimagining the Gap Concept Store once again. I won’t tell you yet what the next incarnation will be, but you can check out previous ones here and here. Just know that, for mere hours, the Concept Store will revert to being a blank, White Space. Then, it will morph into yet another awesome, new experience for New Yorkers, and anyone else who happens to visit.