Back in September, I took a look at Target's new approach to e-commerce — creating entertainment webisodes with product placements that allowed viewers to buy the products they see online without interrupting the show.
It's brilliant, or evil, or both.
Now, as Adrants reports, Juicy Couture is getting into the act, and taking it one step further.
The video, directed by Terry Richardson and starring model Candice Swanepoel, features a frame-within-a-frame. By mousing into it, you are prompted to click directly to the online shop (in a new window).
The story and images (the beautiful woman, living a dreamlike life of luxury) combined with easy and instant access to the superficial trappings of the fantasy create a perfect incentive to impulse shop. In this case, the female consumer would be out $200 before she might even know what hit her.
I've been writing a lot about sensory experiences that impair our judgement, but I've been focussing on how they affect men (because we're such damn easy targets). But what are the irrational factors that cloud the judgement of female consumers? Do you think this includes any of it? Does it make a difference if you're gay or straight? Would it work on you?
Perhaps not yet. Fast Company quotes Darrell Whitelaw Executive Creative Director at IPG Media Lab, who calls this rollout of YouTube's new click to shop technology "the Sony Walkman of ecommerce and video". It's a reference to how personal cassette players were a game-changer, but it took the iPod to perfect the idea.
“The thinking is spot-on, but the execution is just awful."
What's awful about it, Whitelaw says, is that every time a user clicks on a product they're interested in, the video stops. This is an experience-busting flaw that most shoppable video shares. It's what's likely to separate the Walkmans from the iPods.
...
“Every evolution starts with something like this,” Whitelaw says. “I’m not taking away from the quality of it. It’s amazing that someone actually did it and got a client to say yes, let’s jump in and do this new thing. But you still have to look at the fact the next one – that perfect, beautiful experience—that’s going to be the one that gets people to buy.”
