Asos Australia makes rare move offline for O Week

octomedia

2nd Mar 2016

Online fashion retailer, Asos, went back to school last week, with activations at five universities during O Week.

Co-branded with PayPal, the activation stalls gave away bespoke goodie bags, ran competitions to win Asos gift vouchers and offered a gif photo booth.

‘ASOS on Campus’ took place at Monash University, University of Melbourne, University of NSW, University of Sydney and the University of Queensland during orientation week. 

Carly Cazzolli, country manager for Asos Australia, told Internet Retailing that students are highly engaged in fashion, social media and digital content, which is at the core of Asos proposition for 20-somethings.

“From Asos’ perspective, students are strategically very important to us,” Cazzolli said.

“This is what’s really interesting about the Asos On Campus proposition in particular. Traditionally Asos will not do offline activations, so [we are] very much an online brand. I think offline activations, when they are done in the right environment, are a very powerful way to complement our digital offering with a physical brand experience.”

The activations were designed to be playful and shareable.

Students queued to use the gif photo booths, provided by Polite in Public, which take three pictures, which are given out as hard copies, and also used to create an animated gif file that is emailed or texted to the students instantly. The gif file can then be shared on social media.

“It’s just a bit of fun, but highly engaging,” Cazzolli said.

“A successful offline activation, especially something at O Week, it just can’t take itself too seriously. It is very fun; we want not only a fun introduction to the brand, but we also want to represent how we are as a brand.

“It’s all part of the Asos brand – that we don’t take ourselves too seriously. I think that is the secret. Especially when you are looking at the student market.”