One of the larger parts of Hallmark Cards Inc. is the Hallmark Channel which produces a large amount of original content. As part of an effort to create a magical holiday movie a team was designated to begin creating the world of North Pole. This would no longer be the small village the city's image might conjure but rather a sprawling metropolis with factories, shops, neighborhoods and canals.

 

As part of the rollout Hallmark not only made the movie but also various products, interactive displays, events and an explorable website with a bevy of original content to promote the movie. As this product began rolling out in our Mass Channel retailers (Walmart, Walgreens, CVS) it was noted that our representation in our own Gold Crown stores was rather minimal.

Simultaneously our Rockefeller Center store's lease was being threatened by the property manager. The store was seen as incomparable to the other specialty retailers in the building. In hopes of solving this problem as well as our North Pole plus-up, the visual merchandising team was challeneged to create a one-of-a-kind shopping experience centered around North Pole.

The store's exterior which faces the subway doors and is seen by hundreds of commuters each day.
The store itself had good traffic but was mostly out of necessity.

Checkout station.

Work began in Kansas City crafting a concept around the potential reinvention of the store. To truly create a unique and on-brand environment required studying the world of North Pole. Popular trades, favorite foods and even the slang of North Pole's citizens was considered for the development of our concept.

 

The concept formed around the elves of North Pole. The elves all make toys but they work in very specialized professions for their respective toy guilds. Our concept, centered around featuring the unique products in an unavoidable way, was driven by the delivery of the North Pole product to the store. The North Pole elves are always making sure that everything is extra fun, so after they delivered the product how would they make the store (and everything in it) more fun.

Early renderings of the front of store and front-of-store display visualizing how the elves might have "crashed" the store. "Snowpunked" (like Steampunk) machines with movement, heat sensitive window graphics and a variety of other techniques were considered to create this awe-inspiring interactive environment.

After a month of execution on our concept, all of our solution work was packed onto a truck and driven to New York where myself and three other members of the visual merchandising team were waiting. We arrived Friday evening and spent the next two days building installations, hanging signs and decorating as though the elves of North Pole had visited the store.

The construction of our target practice game which utilizes a North Pole product, The Magic Snowball, that when thrown illuminates with many different colors as it strikes something.

The hanging of Christmas lights throughout the entire store was mandatory as the streets of North Pole are fully illuminated with them. Additionally, they gave the store a familiar, home-like feeling that encouraged visitors to stay awhile longer.

After installation was complete it was easy to see, even when the store was closed, that a major transformation had taken place.

Upon entering the store, visitors were immersed in this new environment of bright lights and colors all encouraging a playful environment of interaction.

The front display featured Hallmark's North Pole Communicator, which allows southerners (what we're called in North Pole) to communicate with the elves of and sometimes even Santa. Each one of these stations invites visitors to step right up and have a conversation and utilizes elements from the delivery (crates, packing snow, etc) as well as a hand-written gift tag from the elves.

The display featuring Treeluminator, a plunger detonator device that can controls the power to your tree's lights. After a quick countdown the tree explodes with light as the user pushes the plunger.

The Bake like an Elf display featured a custom built baker's rack to allow visitors the opportunity to play with the inventive baking gadgets that made up the product line. As you can see from the gift tag, this display was put together by The Guild of Yummy.

The Dance like an Elf display included a working speaker stack to get the entire store dancing to the easy instructions provided by the device.

The Storytime Nook featured all of the North Pole books and invited busy Christmas shoppers to sit in an elfish room and read a bit.

The final display for the Magic Snowball target practice. As the snowflakes illuminated, the visitor was encouraged to hit the display and see the snowball's light show.

The crowning achievement was the back bar behind the cash wrap. Massive panels printed with northern lights created the backdrop for an array of undulating lights beneath. The lights were then sandwiched by a die-cut front panel featuring the city of North Pole.

Overall the store saw a massive uptick in sales of North Pole product and struggled to keep items on shelves. Additionally, the property manager of the Rockefeller Center mall encouraged Hallmark to renew it's lease based on the installation.