Express steps onto the runway

New Express clothing stores were slated to launch in Canada in the fall/winter of 2012. With no creative agency to provide assets, the brand approached Starcom MediaVest Group to help drive more traffic.

To help consumers envision Express clothing in their closets, the agency built a mobile closet that showcased the content in a way that a mall could not, by bringing the brand to the streets and into the target's (20- to 30-year-olds) points of reference.

The Express closet was introduced during Toronto's World MasterCard Fashion Week, with a runway show filmed and live-streamed on YouTube as well as on two billboards in Toronto's Yonge-Dundas Square (across the street from where a new store was going to open.

During Fashion Week, the agency also created daily vignettes featuring Express celebrity models and marketing leaders commenting on the trends of the week. And post-Fashion Week, the mobile pop-up was placed in high-traffic areas such as malls and cinemas.

The "pop-up closet concept" is now a global best practice and is being used in markets in North and Latin America as well as the Middle East.