Are you Sporty, Sexy or Glam?
Earlier this week, Michael Kors released an interactive Facebook app to introduce consumers to its three new beauty and fragrance collections.
When you launch the video portion of the app, you'll find a vanity table displaying the three collections. Clicking one transports you -- for Sporty, that means a flash of a boat followed by a dive in a pool; for Glam, a splash of champagne and a photo shoot.
While you're watching the videos, the app prompts you to take screenshots to share to Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter -- an idea the brand has clearly borrowed from Topshop's runway live streams. (Update: A Michael Kors spokesperson says the company first demoed the technology in February 2012, six months before Topshop did.) When you're finished, you can opt to watch more videos, shop the collections or enter a sweepstakes.
The app is immersive and does an excellent job of conveying the sense of the fragrances through a medium that doesn't allow consumers to actually experience (i.e., smell) them.
But I can't help wondering if shares (and sales) may be improved by including a sampling element, which both Burberry and Oscar de la Renta used to promote their fragrance launches in 2011. The genius of Burberry's campaign was in the timing: Testimonials from those who received samples poured onto Burberry's Facebook page just as the fragrance hit stores.
In addition to the app, Kors has also launched a microsite that mimics, to a degree, the app's choose-your-own-adventure style of discovery. It also serves as a home base for all of the photos the brand and its fans are posting to Instagram with the #sportysexyglam hashtag.