Outerwear retailer Moosejaw released an augmented reality app last month that lets users "see through" the clothing in its winter catalog, showing male and female models in their underwear (see above).
Some of you called it "sleazy." Others called it "creative." Either way, it got your attention, racking up 1 million impressions on Twitter, 160,000 video views and 75,000 downloads in five weeks, according to data from Marxent Labs, the company that developed the app. Not bad for a catalog with a typical distribution of 120,000.
The app also drove sales, up 37% from the same period in November last year. Catalog response rates -- that is, the percentage of catalog subscribers who purchased something from Moosejaw's website in the weeks following the catalog's release -- were up by a full third to 4%.
We weren't surprised that the app got so much attention. Similar augmented reality initiatives, such as those from Esquire and Starbucks, have built buzz on this scale before. We've never seen such a strong correlation to sales, however. We were particularly impressed given that the app seemed to distract users from the products themselves.
Gary Wohlfeill, Moosejaw's creative director, wasn't as surprised by the sales results. People spent more time with the catalog, and sales were a natural result, he suggested in a phone interview.