Every year, brands invest in stunning, festive campaigns such as over-the-top brick-and-mortar displays and interactive pop-up experiences to capture shopper’s attention, highlight seasonal collections and drive sales during the holiday season. With virtual holiday pop-up experiences, brands get the best of both worlds: digital extravagance and engaging interactivity in immersive pop-up experiences primed for the busy shopping season. Plus, as an added bonus, a virtual plane to showcase holiday campaign assets.
Virtual holiday pop-ups are temporary installations that offer a unique blend of engagement and immersive storytelling, offering holiday shoppers a one-stop shop to discover, research and seamlessly purchase gifts. Just like physical holiday pop-ups, virtual holiday pop-up experiences are interactive and memorable—perfect for building buzz around seasonal collections and brand moments.
Pair physical holiday pop-up activations with a digital counterpart to maximize the ROI and extend its reach, or create a standalone virtual holiday pop-up filled with decor and features only possible in the digital realm to engage shoppers. See how leading brands in fashion, beauty, CPG and more have worked with Obsess to create virtual pop-up experiences for their holiday campaign mix.
Coach Virtual Holiday Gift Shop
Open for the holidays, Coach unveiled an ultra-engaging, highly-gamified virtual pop-up store set in a retro gift shop for shoppers on their direct-to-consumer e-commerce site. The virtual experience showcased products form the brand’s holiday collection, and featured several engaging features such as a mascot scavenger hunt game and the ability to shop with friends via live video feeds. Combining technology, innovation and creativity, Coach won a Webby Award in Retail and Shopping in the Metaverse, Immersive and Virtual Category for this virtual holiday experience.
E.l.f. Cosmetics Virtual Holiday Workshop
The e.l.f.z worked their holiday magic with the Virtual Workshop by e.l.f. Cosmetics, coating every virtual corner with glitter and the “most OMG gifts” of the season. The virtual holiday pop-up shop enabled visitors to discover must-have beauty stocking stuffers and digital branded mini games like a matching game built into a red sequin wall. The virtual playscape was primed for shopping during the busy gifting season, with each product available for purchase directly in the workshop. Spotlighting the Sleigh the Holiday Gift Finder, shoppers could find their perfect present with a three-question quiz.
Elizabeth Arden Holiday Experience
Revlon beauty brand, Elizabeth Arden, routinely refreshes the products and decor in their virtual experience, leveraging visual merchandising to highlight new products. For the holiday season, they showcased their curated gift sets, wrapped neatly in red and gold. Outside, visitors were greeted with a flurry of snow. Inside, they were met with festive decor, a personalized skincare quiz, new branded online games such as a two-level matching game and their infamous AI-generated gallery-style exhibit to showcase the brand’s history through AI-enhanced archival footage.
Rao’s Virtual Holiday Saucery Pop-up
Legendary specialty foods brand Rao’s immortalized their IRL pop-up experience with a digital twin—later revealing a holiday version of the Virtual Saucery as part of their seasonal marketing campaign. The Virtual Holiday Saucery Pop-up shop empowered users to explore the brand’s best in glass products and get lost in the sauce, learning more about their premium portfolio and difference. Shoppers were immersed into Rao’s virtual brand world with seasonal decor, animated cheer and interactive features such as their custom digital jigsaw puzzle game and holiday giveaway challenge.
Crocs Virtual Holiday Pop-up Shop
Adding to their troupe of virtual pop-ups, including their innovative Jibbitz experience, Crocs created a virtual 3D holiday experience—decking the halls with boughs of holly and seasonal Jibbitz. When entering, users could take a quiz for suggestions on the perfect present, directing them to thematic rooms with the recommended products; from glitzy, disco balls to pink, fuzzy walls, each room emphasized the personality of the famed shoe charms in it. To further engage visitors of the experience, Crocs also included media assets from their holiday campaign and a custom branded game to catch Jibbitz for an exclusive prize.
Laura Mercier World of Beauty: Holiday Edition
Stocking stuffers and gift sets galore, the Laura Mercier World of Beauty virtual experience got a stunning, festive makeover for the holidays. Sporting new animations and decor, the temporary look showcased the Orveon brand’s seasonal collection alongside engaging, fan-favorite features of the original experience. Visitors could still play the scavenger hunt game, take a custom color quiz and try on personalized product recommendations with AR technology. As always, each product was available for purchase directly in the virtual experience—users could even add full looks from their color quiz results and the Virtual Try-On feature.
Immersive holiday pop-up experiences are a powerful tool for brands looking to engage shoppers in new and exciting ways. Focused on personalization and engagement, these highly-visual experiences are transforming holiday online shopping. To learn more about how to stand out this holiday season with interactive virtual holiday pop-up experiences, book a demo or email contact@obsessvr.com.
