Using 3D technology to enhance customer experience

Lingerie brand Empreinte has been pushing the boundaries of in-store technology with 3D holographic models

Empreinte has been using holographic models to enhance the experience of the customer.

What was the thinking behind the hologram campaign?

The idea of the campaign was to create a real buzz around the brand and our new concept store. The hologram was actually just one piece in an otherwise global communication strategy, which had two main objectives – create awareness and drive people to the store.

This global strategy also included meeting with bloggers, advertising on fashion blogs and with social media insiders, posting a hologram video on YouTube, and a PR strategy targeting consumers and women's magazines

How does the hologram work?

It's an advanced form of photography that allows an image to be recorded in three dimensions – it's in fact a recording of an interference pattern made by the interaction of two beams of light.

Holograms work by creating an image composed of two superimposed two-dimensional pictures of the same object seen from different reference points. Holography requires the use of light of a single exact wavelength, so lasers have to be used.

Basically, when viewing any object, the human eyes each receive a distinct image but from slightly offset reference points. The brain combines them into a three-dimensional image – the hologram just produces the effect artificially.

How have customers and consumers reacted?

We've had great feedback so far and for two main reasons. Firstly, because using technology in this way helps create a new brand experience, one that allows customers to engage and interact with the brand and its products in a sensorial way.

We have also received good feedback because consumers are looking for innovation online and in real life too – that's what we tried to give them by using something new and unique.

Why did you choose to display the hologram after 9pm? Why not in the day-time?

It's a projection (with a video projector) so it works only in a dark room or a similar environment – the hologram needs to be played after 9pm, during sunset.

Do you think 3D technology will change the way retailers interact with customers?

Brand value has increasingly been defined, not through the narrow lens of price, but in terms of the total experience that consumers have when they interact with a given brand. That's why l'Atelier lingerie Empreintehas developed a total digital experience thanks to this hologram and to a touch-screen interactive table that gives product and service presentations.

Retailers are working to redefine the shopping experience with new technologies, such as 3D. In any case, technology must be useful and feed the brand content – shoppers don't want technology just for the sake of it.

Alexandre Rostaing is strategic planner at Groupe Carlin International