Outdoor sports retailer Peak Performance will this week be opening 26 weather-controlled pop-up virtual shops, as part of a mobile experiential #catchmagichour campaign, which is central to the brand’s promotion of its spring/summer collection. Created by Perfect Fools Stockholm, the Magic Hour is being promoted as a time to clear your head, push limits, reach goals and take on new challenges.
The virtual pop-up shops, located in handpicked, inspirational rural backdrops, offer apparel from Peak Performance’s new collection free to anyone who can find them. The unique twist is that only apparel that suits the weather is available. Adventurers, ramblers, runners, trekkers and city explorers are invited to visit one of the stores via their smartphone and claim a free product through a pulse-pumping fitness challenge shared on Instagram.
“We’ve opened virtual shops at different locations around Europe to encourage people to get out there and take on the challenge”
A responsive mobile-first Catch The Magic Hour website, displays the shop location, distance to it, opening hours, and a collection catalogue. A device’s GPS detects when it’s at the correct location and unlocks a shop if products are still available. Visitors not at exactly the right spot can only preview the clothes. Perfect Fools used an external API to measure the weather at the user's location and the available clothing changes in real-time according to the prevailing conditions. The message is that Peak Performance has products for all weather types and there's no excuse not to get out and exercise.
The stores can be found in places including the Aiguille du Midi mountain in Chamonix, France; Lake Vänern in Karlstad, Sweden, and the Isar Bridge in Munich, Germany. For customers who cannot visit one of the virtual stores, there is an option to choose their own location via a competition. To enter people need to film or photograph their favourite outdoor place and share on Instagram with the geo-tag and hashtags #catchmagichour and #mystore. Peak Performance will pick its favourite from the entries, reward the winner with a full weather-proof kit and open the store for others. All posts will be shared on the Catch The Magic Hour site until the end of the campaign on the 9th of May.
“We built an experience for customers that incorporates the ethos of adaptability, using a weather API that helps inform what clothing people should buy”
Jeanette Francke, Marketing Director at Peak Performance: “#catchmagichour can be an intense run, a fairway at dawn or a bike ride with unexpected surroundings. It’s whatever gets you going, it’s about feeling empowered and reenergised. With the help of Perfect Fools we’ve opened virtual shops at different locations around Europe to encourage people to get out there and hope as many as possible will take on the challenge.”
Klas Lusth, Creative Director of Perfect Fools, added: “Peak Performance is a leader in technical sports gear for all kinds of conditions. We wanted to build an experience for customers that incorporates this ethos of adaptability, so we used a weather API that helps inform what clothing people should buy.”
