Joyconomy retail

Retailers are spreading joy through colorful activations and pop culture collaborations to engage consumers with positivity and creativity.

Louis Vuitton

Yayoi Kusama’s red, yellow and green dots cover the Louis Vuitton boutiques in New York and Paris, adding color and joy to their entire storefront. At Harrod’s in London, a surreal, giant lifelike statue of Kusama leans over the side of the building, poised with a paintbrush as if mid-stroke.

An image of the Eiffel Tower with a blue animated circle behind it and yellow, green, and red dots covering it through a digital filter. — Snapchat 'Monument Scan' with Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama, courtesy of Twitter.

Snap, Inc.

In addition to the physical enhancement, Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama have layered a Snapchat filter to bring the colors to life in real time. Using the ‘Monument Scan,’ consumers can superimpose the bright and poppy design onto global landmarks. The dots crawl and move along the buildings or statues until they cover it, adding augmented animation to the fun.

Loewe

At the end of January, Loewe displayed an inflatable replica of Howl’s Moving Castle, the Japanese fantasy film animated by Studio Ghibli, as the luxury brand’s final capsule collaboration with the studio. The pop-up was displayed first at the Eiffel Tower, and soon after at London’s Marble Arch.

A colorful storefront with pink flooring, a green wall to the right, and a blue counter to the left with tapestries, clothing and books covering the walls and shelves. — Yinka Ilori Studio Pop Up Store. Image credit: Ed Reeve

Yinka Ilori

The homeware brand hosted a bright and colorful popup shop in Shoreditch at the start of 2023. Inspired by West African architecture, the furniture ranges in shades of red, pink, blue, and green and shapes that curve and bend to inspire customers to “connect, experience and discover” with joy and optimism.

H&M

The retailer’s experiential store in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York is testing a new theme for “Chapter 2” of the shop’s year-long rotation: a ‘Tactile playground’ meant to promote the brand’s athletic wear. This “Move Studio” activation features chromotherapy lighting and exercise classes hosted in colorful operative spaces.

Main image courtesy of Yinka Ilori Studio. Image by Ed Reeve.