Mulberry lights up stores for Christmas, smart vending machine takes UK tour

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 19, 2018

Luxury retailer Mulberry continued to play up both its technology and its experience focus in its still-new Regent Street flagship at the weekend with the company having unveiled a pop-up smart vending machine in-store.

The machine was designed to encourage customers to play for prizes as part of the brand’s overall #MulberryLights campaign that has seen it projecting techno-based Christmas lights onto surfaces in central London as well as transforming the store itself.

Mulberry has become known for its quirky and often humorous approach to Christmas season marketing with a series of storytelling campaigns that have occasionally courted controversy.

But it hasn’t previously focused too much on the impact of technology on its retail experience, nor on the experience itself.

But this time it’s celebrating how light, colour and different shapes can combine to create a very British Christmas experience via the Lights theme and is aiming to directly engage consumers via the vending machine. And it won’t only be London that gets to take part.

It was in Regent Street at the weekend, as mentioned, and will be in Leeds from November 22-25, then Manchester from November 26-28 and Edinburgh from November 29 to December 2.

The company will also repeat the experience, which was was produced by TheCurrent, in New York next month.

The smart vending machine offers the fun of taking part in-store but also the option for consumers to share the fun via social media and for the company itself to capture some data.

In-store, consumers can get instant access to prizes by sharing their own images inspired by lights using the #MulberryLights hashtag. The vending machine can verify that an image has been shared via Instagram or Twitter. It then invites the shopper to take part in a bespoke game that could result in a daily top prize of a £1,000 gift card, as well as other less valuable prizes. There’s also a further competition that could win the consumer £5,000.