Key features:

• Sheep with personalities concept   
• Bespoke installations across all UK stores
• Use of public spaces to generate buzz
• Press and consumer driven once launched

Uniqlo came to us with a brief to promote a new Merino wool Autumn range. The only stipulation was that it had to include 300 small, wooden sheep! 

We loved the idea of putting the sheep centre-stage and letting their personalities do the talking. We naturally attribute human characteristics to animals – they’re cute, funny, curious, odd – so we took this as the creative springboard for a concept where sheep playfully explored, and interacted with, the world around them.

For retail we designed an array of bespoke installations that placed sheep in amusing, playful positions such as looking up at mannequins, rotating on windmills and standing proudly on top of each other. We dressed the sheep in tailor-made woolly jumpers and ‘special offer’ belly bands. 

Everything else was designed to look like wool – from giant balls of yarn, to banners showing customers how they might mix and match colours. We even designed a ‘knitted’ typeface.

To publicise the retail activity we developed a social media campaign that took photographs of sheep in public locations and invited customers to enter a caption competition run daily on Facebook and Twitter.

The campaign was a big hit with customers and its amusing, immersive nature gave it a self-driving PR momentum across both trade and consumer press.