The world’s first hologram party invitation. Inspired by Leia’s message to Obi Wan, this innovative direct mailer pays homage to R2D2’s projector in look, feel, and SFX.

The mailer contains the full line-up of Stance socks, each featuring an iconic character from the original Star Wars films, and divides the socks into two sides, dark and light.

The Stance direct mailer contains a branded iPad and lens attachment. Once activated, a 3D hologram of pro skater Chris Cole invites recipients to choose a side (light or dark) and wear their allegiance on their feet for access to the exclusive, red carpet event.

To achieve the illusion of a real hologram, we hacked an iPad and created an innovative screen attachment to project the message in a style authentic to the original Star Wars film.

Through iterative prototyping, we perfected a holographic lens to project 4-sided video. Test footage was shot to approximate the effect and determine proper focal length, image warping and lens orientation.

Next, we invented a new type of camera set-up to capture pro skater Chris Cole kick-flipping from all angles, each at a precise orientation to create a 3D effect.

Video filters were designed from scratch to give the hologram the look and feel of R2D2’s projector. Original sounds from the film were layered in to complete the effect.

After experimenting with different mailer materials and layouts, we perfected a compact, lightweight design to fit a Stance-branded iPad, hologram lens and two pairs of Stance Star Wars socks.

The hologram invite turned 20 tickets into millions of likes, shares, and views:

- Influencer unboxing videos of the hologram went viral with 750,000+ views.

- The activation earned a combined social reach of 3.4 million.

- Stance beat sales projections by 300% and had its highest single sales day ever.

Not bad for a rebel sock brand with zero paid media.

This Stance Star Wars activation takes dimensional mailing to another dimension with innovative, holographic projection and turns product samples into a fundamental choice between good and evil.

Behave like the rebellion. With Death-Star-sized brands like Walmart and Target outspending us, our strategy was to attack like rebels with proton-torpedo precision.

The free tickets were going to be given away at random, but we saw an opportunity to create a must-share invitation. Our target? 20 highly followed, Star Wars influencers.

Stance, an indie sock brand, wanted to launch limited-edition, Star Wars socks on an even more limited budget, at the height of the new movie’s marketing hype, all while big box retailers were launching their own co-branded sock lines.

As part of the partnership, Stance was given 20 tickets to Wired Magazine’s Star Wars Launch Party. Many other brands also received free tickets, but only Stance managed to turn the opportunity into a viral, Internet sensation.