JULY 18, 2014, Hong Kong – DFS Group (DFS), the world’s leading luxury travel retailer, has been named the Grand Prize winner in VMSD Magazine’s 2014 International Visual Competition for its Fall/Winter 2013 campaign, “Asia Unfolds”. This was the first ever seasonal campaign for T Galleria by DFS.
Taking inspiration from its heritage in travel and Asia, the campaign transported customers into a fairy-tale world crafted entirely out of paper. The visual merchandising theme, “Asia Unfolds”, was brought to life through in-store and window display visuals at the 14 participating luxury department stores and two airport stores worldwide.
“We are incredibly proud and delighted to be bestowed with this prestigious industry award, said John Gerhardt, Senior Vice President, Branding and Creative, DFS Group. “Fall/Winter 2013 was our first campaign for our newly renamed downtown brand, T Galleria by DFS, and it is truly encouraging as we look to push the boundaries in luxury travel retail and create a holistic and truly luxurious shopping experience for the travelling customer.”
Conceptualised and crafted by DFS’ Visual Merchandising team, the campaign reached a global audience across 16 DFS store locations around the world, in 13 countries and on 3 continents. Store locations included Abu Dhabi, Auckland, Bali, Cairns, Guam, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Macau, Okinawa, Saipan, Singapore and Sydney. The campaign was also extended to global marketing platforms including print, outdoor, digital and social media.
Every single piece of visual merchandising was custom-designed and prototyped by DFS’ own in-house Visual Merchandising team, and then specially produced for DFS. The majority of the paper used for the campaign was sourced from the remote Shiqiao Village in Guizhou, China, where the traditional art of paper-making traces back to its invention there over 1,200 years ago during the Tang Dynasty. DFS also worked with 60 skilled artisans from the village, who helped incorporate the brand’s signature red colour into the 100,000 intricate origami pieces that made up the campaign, each of which was handmade. DFS initiated a fair-trade agreement with Shiqiao Village, which is helping to preserve the local culture and artisan community for future generations.
In an extension of the theme, several land, sea and air travel elements were incorporated into the campaign, including exquisitely shaped paper sculptures of swallows, airplanes, flowers, trees and coral. Constructions depicting the distinctive scenery of key store locations, such as Hawaii, Hong Kong and Singapore were also used.
VMSD Magazine covers the art and science of retail design. It is the leading monthly publication dedicated to the retail design sector.
