Hasta La Ideas

Department store Selfridges has launched an interactive ad campaign to promote its new denim department made up of images shot by the public.

The shop held a catwalk event at The Old Selfridges Hotel last week and invited audience members to take pictures of denim-clad models using their smartphones or digital cameras. The images – more than 300 of them – were used to create a collage which went live online and on digital billboards yesterday.

The concept was devised by photographer Tom Craig, who worked on the project with Selfridges creative director Alannah Weston and The Rumpus Room, which handled planning and production.

“If you imagine every different perspective [at an event] and every different individual takes a picture, and that picture becomes a mosaic, then the contribution of all of those people becomes an epic image,” explains Craig in a video on the making of the project (below).

The Rumpus Room used vision tracking software to collate and organise audience members’ photos and the whole process – from collective photography to completing the final ad – took less than 24 hours.

Selfridges is also inviting jeans fans to submit Instagram photos of their favourite denim using the hashtag #denimlovers. Selected photos will appear in the store’s window displays and each week, one winner will receive a free pair of jeans.

The finished ad isn’t as polished as previous Selfridges campaigns – more photos overall, and less of audience members’ elbows and iPhones, would have made a more visually striking image – but it’s an interesting concept and one that should generate a high level of user engagement.

Buy the current print issue of CR, or subscribe, here