So any marketing campaign needs to have gravitas and global appeal.
It was up to us as a creative team to bring that to life through the form of an
event.
But I wanted to take it a step further and create something that was more
immersive that had never been done before.
And it became the world's first.
So it was the world's first AI driven, shoppable and immersive catwalk.
And to us that really meant showcasing our capabilities.
And we also wanted to really focus in on the AI opportunity and AI narrative.
So we came up with this strategic kind of foundation stone of runway to the future,
which of course has a double meaning of alluding to the fashion runway,
but also the strategic approach to what's next.
And we've got a fantastic facility here to bring that to life.
So a huge space just outside Manchester Airport.
It felt like just the right time with Topshop coming back onto the High Street
and Manchester hosting the Brit Awards that we'd hosted here in our amazing
facility.
And then it was about us telling the story of our tech capabilities.
So working with our tech teams, our machine learning teams and our team
in Studios I labs to bring to life all these amazing pieces of technology.
And we actually built quite a lot of different and new world first pieces of
technology that really related back to the original theme of a catwalk and the
shopping experience that that would create for us.
AI isn't just a tool, it's ultimately a revolution.
It's a revolution that's helping us reimagine everything we do.
So AI within the catwalk was really driven by humans.
It was very much collaboration between the human idea,
the emotional intelligence and the tool in in AI, how it can bring that to life.
We're talking to a number of our big retail clients about what we actually did
with the app.
So a few of them are looking at things like virtual trial,
which isn't surprising.
One of the features that we got a lot of really positive feedback from was a
feature that we actually built so that when you held your phone up when the
models were coming down the catwalk, you could actually get the product
information up on the screen and you could add it to your favourites or your
wish list and then go ahead and buy those products.
We're hearing from people in the industry that they want to use things like virtual
trial and features so you can actually get a feel for what an outfit looks like.
And that was why we'd already been looking at this.
So we worked the number of brand partners and collaborators and sponsors to bring
the event to life.
And it was a real privilege to be honest.
But each one of them brought, I suppose, different challenges and different needs
and wants and requirements.
So in, in terms of executing those, it took a a big team,
even for things like networks, infrastructure teams to get them involved,
the AV teams, the set build team to make sure that we
were really bringing those bands to life.
Collaboration's at the heart of everything we do.
It's really fundamental to everything we do.
We, we, our success is built on collaborative
approach for catwalk.
First point of collaboration was for the runway show was of course with Topshop
and really understanding their story and going on the journey with them.
But we also collaborated with our partner Google,
who gave us a really amazing mix of creative tools than to really engage with
the with the guests.
There was so much buzz, people getting their phones up showing
look, this is so great to be able to see myself
wearing all of these outfits and it works so well on the night.
One of the key measures of success that I bring to anything like this is how much
do the audience clearly emotionally engage with the experience.
So I think my probably my favorite moment from the show was really the opening
statement or opening moment where the first model bursts through the kind of
iconic top shot bag.
We actually got gasps and screams and I think quite literally a couple of screams,
which was incredible.
More than we can wish for.
Our host Patricia Bright played a really key part in that.
She has a history with the brand.
She also shares part of the journey in terms of really embracing the world of
tech, but also embracing the world of culture.
Executing an event of this scale is, is absolutely monumental, colossal.
The way that our team has worked to do this,
this has been an extra project on top of all the other deliveries that we're doing
for our clients.
So a lot of this work was done in people's own times.
They were so passionate and excited about it.
It was absolutely incredible on the night.
It was really emotional to see it all come.
There was no detail that hadn't been thought about and planned.
And so it meant that when things did maybe not quite go to plan,
that we were able to react.
So all of these different teams combined together, the expertise, the creativity,
the innovation, the the tech, all coming together into one evening and
making our kind of dream, our idea come to life.