Fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger has launched an augmented reality-powered preppy fitting room to help promote its spring/summer limited-edition Prep World collection.

The augmented reality fitting room helps extends the reach of the campaign for Prep World by giving anyone with a mobile phone who is close to a Tommy Hilfiger pop-up store the ability to engage with the brand in a unique way. Users can superimpose clothing from the collection onto themselves using the phone’s camera.

“Tommy Hilfiger is taking advantage of how ubiquitous mobile phones are to create something fun that increases engagement with the brand,” said Shailesh Rao, vice president of business development at Goldrun Inc., New York, which created the augmented reality fitting room.

The Tommy Hilfiger augmented reality fitting room comes at a time when there is growing interest in mobile marketing.

Augmented reality requires object recognition and computerization on the mobile device as well as 3D rendering to superimpose images on the real world.

Making mobile dynamic
“There’s a huge amount of interested in augmented reality from brands,” Mr. Rao said. “The Goldrun platform provides a low-barrier entry for brands to create a dynamic mobile environment and help address the objectives they already have.”

When a user is anywhere near one of the Tommy Hilfiger pop-up stores, the application launches automatically, allowing them to view the virtual imagery inside the stores, take pictures of themselves or friends interacting with the content and upload it to the Tommy Hilfiger fitting room.

There is on-site imagery explaining how the process works.

While the Goldrun application supports commerce, consumers will not be able to purchase items via the Tommy Hilfiger fitting room.

The fitting room app is part of a larger effort by Tommy Hilfiger, New York, to promote the Prep World collection that also includes a pop-up store that will travel to key cities around the world, a dedicated microsite and a Facebook presence.

The pop-up store is designed to resemble an East Coast beach house. Inside, consumers will find the Prep World collection, which reflects the way that different cities around the world have interpreted the classic preppy look.

Editors from magazines such as Lucky and Details were on hand to offer style tips.

The first United States stop for the pop-up store was New York, where the store was located in Gansevoort Plaza. Following its May 5-8 New York stopover, the pop-up store will travel to London, Stockholm, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Sylt, Germany and Knokke, Belgium.

Virtual turns preppy
The collection is also available in Tommy Hilfiger stores and online at tommy.com/prep. The Prep World microsite features a prep guidebook to all the cities on the tour.

In New York, Goldrun will follow up the fitting room with a preppy city guide to New York City. Users will see tips on the best preppy spots and be able to upload pictures of themselves wearing virtual Tommy Hilfiger creations at these locations.

A living document showcasing people wearing the collection is planned for the microsite and for Facebook. Visitors will be able to upload portraits of themselves wearing a preppy look and vote on their favorite look.

The winner of the favorite look will travel to one of the destinations of the pop-up store.

Tommy Hilfiger also plans to launch a shopping boutique on Boutiques.com to support the Prep World collection.

Consumer can also follow the collection on Twitter at #prepworld.

The Tommy Hilfiger Group is owned by Phillips-Van Heusen Corp. The premium lifestyle brand’s menswear, womenswear, children’s apparel and denim collections are available through Tommy Hilfiger retail stores, specialty and department stores and online.

The virtual fitting room helps extend the experience created by Tommy Hilfiger for its Prep World collection in fun and engaging way, per Mr. Rao.

“This goes way beyond traditional advertising because brands can put product anywhere that’s central to the brand and where people are gathering,” Mr. Rao said.

Final Take
Goldrun’s Shailesh Rao