Saks's promotional bus
Photo: Courtesy of Saks Fifth Avenue
In an effort to reach out to fashion-sensitive locals and tourists while promoting its “Want It!” campaign, Saks Fifth Avenue gave consumers free city tours on a bus branded with illustrations from the ad campaign. Covered with decals of graphic artist Piet Paris’s depictions of New York cultural institutions as statuesque fashion figures, the double-decker bus—essentially a moving billboard—set off from the retailer’s flagship location and looped around the Upper East Side, stopping at several landmark buildings along the way. The tours, which ran from Thursday, March 13, through Saturday, March 15, collected passengers at the top of every hour between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
The idea behind the marketing stunt (which aimed to highlight seasonal trends from the store) was to make a visual connection between Paris’s illustrations and the iconic buildings that inspired them. Knowing that moving billboards are illegal, Saks vice president of marketing Kimberly Grabel and her team, after brainstorming for several months, opted to bypass the law by using a bus. The store’s director of advertising, Debbie Patirie, was tasked with finding the appropriate vehicle and eventually chose Gray Line, which provides charters complete with a tour guide, as well as vehicles that can be wrapped with images.Digitized and mounted to the sides of the bus, the colorful spray-paint, collage, and watercolor illustration attracted plenty of attention while it traveled up Madison Avenue and back down Fifth. For refreshments, Saks staffers passed out logoed water bottles and credit-card-shaped chocolate bars (provided by partner MasterCard), in addition to cosmetic samples from featured beauty brands.
More than 500 New Yorkers and visitors participated in the promotion, which hit one little snag on its second day: a New York visit from President George W. Bush, meaning that police had barricaded some of the streets along the tour route, causing a significant amount of traffic.
The idea behind the marketing stunt (which aimed to highlight seasonal trends from the store) was to make a visual connection between Paris’s illustrations and the iconic buildings that inspired them. Knowing that moving billboards are illegal, Saks vice president of marketing Kimberly Grabel and her team, after brainstorming for several months, opted to bypass the law by using a bus. The store’s director of advertising, Debbie Patirie, was tasked with finding the appropriate vehicle and eventually chose Gray Line, which provides charters complete with a tour guide, as well as vehicles that can be wrapped with images.Digitized and mounted to the sides of the bus, the colorful spray-paint, collage, and watercolor illustration attracted plenty of attention while it traveled up Madison Avenue and back down Fifth. For refreshments, Saks staffers passed out logoed water bottles and credit-card-shaped chocolate bars (provided by partner MasterCard), in addition to cosmetic samples from featured beauty brands.
More than 500 New Yorkers and visitors participated in the promotion, which hit one little snag on its second day: a New York visit from President George W. Bush, meaning that police had barricaded some of the streets along the tour route, causing a significant amount of traffic.
