Following a double-digit drop in millennial customers in search of home décor between 2015-2018, Fortune 50 home retailer, Lowe’s, needed to re-assert its décor expertise and win back share of this audience quickly to capture the pandemic-driven business opportunity. We needed a competitive edge to take share of the female millennial customer from décor brands, offering an affordable alternative. To do that, the idea needed to be bold and timely.

Simultaneously, home had replaced fashion as the epicenter of personal style expression – Zoom backgrounds became the statement sweater, hallways the runway and our spaces the ultimate canvas -- creating an opening in the fashion world for an unlikely brand to step in.

Lowe’s sought to leverage this opportunity to 1) bring fashion home, 2) change perceptions of Lowe’s as a destination for style and décor and 3) prove high style doesn’t have to come with a price tag.

After years of unattainable luxury, fashion needed grounding, and one of the industry’s most iconic moments – NYFW: The Shows – was on the brink of collapse due to social distancing, stay-at-home mandates, stalled production, and declines in consumer consumption.

As home and style collided, Lowe’s and FleishmanHillard saw an opportunity to reinvent both industries to stake a permanent seat at the style table, while converting style-savvy millennials into fans. After all, style, accessibility and design have always been core to Lowe’s, but many hadn’t considered it a décor destination.

The idea was born: #FashionGoesHome.

Alongside IMG, NYFW: The Shows and three of the most visionary and inclusive designers – Jason Wu, Rebecca Minkoff and Christian Siriano – Lowe’s transported high fashion from the runway to the home, inspired by the designer’s own unexpected time living within their home’s own walls.

By April 2020, 62% of U.S. employees were working from home. Americans began shopping to improve their environments. Conversations about the fate of NYFW were swirling. In addition to chatter about the event’s exclusivity, unattainability and indulgence, COVID-19 posed threats to its existence. We leveraged these truths to reframe style attainability.

Each designer curated a home décor “edit,” inspired of their time at home. We purposefully invited designers to curate products – not create them – to show consumers the range of stylish décor already available at Lowe’s and within reach.

Each designer then styled their NYFW runways entirely from curations to prove that Lowe’s affordable, accessible, design-inspired décor was ready for fashion’s biggest stage.

The shows were livestreamed on Twitter, democratizing the iconic event and creating access for all, while leveraging earned media, influencers, designers and social media to transform perception of Lowe’s from hardware retailer to fashion trailblazer.

We:

Upended fashion conversation by debuting before NYFW: The Shows announced full plans.

-Sent “VIP Invites” to fashion media from an unexpected

host: Lowe's.

-Held embargoed interviews with EVP and CBMO, Marisa

Thalberg, setting the tone of NYFW before it turned to

clothing.

-Pitched think-pieces on “is fashion dead?”

-Dropped mysterious teaser video on social media.

Hyped curation drops to inspire a shopping frenzy at midnight.

-Leaked products via personal “Style Boxes” delivered to

media and style tastemakers.

-Held virtual “Homeside Chats” with each designer.

-Sent high-gloss lookbooks to thousands of media,

editorializing affordable home products.

-Drove anticipation using owned and influencer social

channels.

Democratized access by livestreaming shows

-Used Twitter's event page and like to remind ad units to

help users reserve their ticket.

Seeded post-event editorial, positioning Lowe's as fashion's unexpected savior.

-Booked exclusive media interviews at each show.

-Published designer interviews and behind-the-scenes footage on social.

NYFW Goes Home with Lowe’s captured the attention of new media, influencers and social users, proved that Lowe’s is a destination for stylish and accessible décor, and made an indelible impact on the NYFW experience on and off the runway.

-Ad Age declared Lowe’s the unexpected “winner” of NYFW, lauding them for generating more social mentions than any brand, including Michael Kors, Mercedes Benz and Burberry.

-Consumers aware of the NYFW partnership were 2X more likely to think of Lowe’s as a destination for trendy style, with 24% program awareness among U.S. Millennials, the key target.

-The collaboration attracted new customers, 31% of which were millennials and 66% of which were females.

-500+ earned media placements, representing 1.6B impressions, including The New York Times, Ad Age and Forbes, plus fashion-centric outlets such as The Zoe Report and W Magazine – brought awareness of Lowe’s stylish offerings to style-obsessed audiences.

-Lowe’s owned social content received 13.9M engagements and 159M impressions, generating +161% engagements per post vs. our top competitor’s. Social media also drove significant intrigue and consideration, with owned content alone driving 624K clicks to Lowe’s website.

-The show livestreams generated 2.3M combined views, with average watch time 85% higher than typical shows on Twitter. Watch time of Christian Siriano’s show peaked at 4.4 minutes, which is 225% higher than the average watch time for all fashion shows on Twitter.

-45 pieces of content from our influencer partners across blogs and social media drove 9.9M impressions and 9.5K engagements.