Founded in 1907, Dallas-based specialty retailer Neiman Marcus is best known for their top fashion finds, fabulous foods and their brightly innovative holiday window displays.
At the annual holiday-time City Lights event, held at the retailer’s flagship store located in downtown Dallas, not only does the store turn aglow with thousands of lights, but the popular Palladian window serves as home base from which to unveil new themes to surprise and delight shoppers of all sorts.
This year’s concept is the celestial-inspired “Big Encounters of the Little Kind,” a partnership to aid Big Brothers Big Sisters.
More than just another window refresh, this year’s concept integrates new visual and audio technologies uncommon to window displays of yesteryear.”For the adults on the outside, we’ve turned the windows from static to interactive,” says Ignaz Gorischek, VP of Store Development for Neiman Marcus.
And by interactive, he’s totally right. Sidewalk visitors can:
■ Literally “go bananas” by texting a special number to trigger 1 of 6 special space-monkey themed effects inside the window display
■ Use their camera phones to experience controllable space scenes, compliments of QR codes;
■ Communicate from street-side audio devices to children playing in the “crawl-tubes” suspended above the city streets and integrated throughout the store window treatments
These new display advancements will undoubtedly lead to new trends in year-round window shopping behavior by retailers and shoppers alike.
Come On, Get “App Happy”
Going beyond the physical store window, NM’s new Gifts App lets users get their daily dose of wonder by shaking their iPhone/Touch or iPad, then shopping for daily suggested items to explore and purchase. Best of all, Neiman Marcus will donate $1 for each app downloaded by savvy shoppers to Big Brothers Big Sisters.
-Contributed by Patrick Kiker
