When it comes to fashion, most purchases are guided by the heart – impulsive and easily influenced by trends. UMOOD challenged consumers to do the exact opposite. By using neurotechnology in-store to determine their mood, we recommend a t-shirt to match and invited customers to shop with their heads instead of their hearts.

Collaborating with Melbourne University, Dentsu ScienceJam Japan and neuroscientist Dr. Phil Harris, UMOOD utilised proprietary technology in a way it had never been used before. In a world-first for the retail industry, UMOOD read the brainwaves of shoppers and made it part of the purchase process – taking the concept of a personalised retail experience to a whole new level.

We needed to identify customers mindsets and a way to group these emotions into a series of moods, while keeping the experience speedy.

Dentsu ScienceJam Japan, a technology company part of Dentsu Inc. developed a custom version of the famous Neurosky Electroencephalography (EEG) headset that samples a range of EEG data – analysed real-time through the cloud. A users EEG was translated into groups:

• Stress

• Like/Affinity

• Concentration

We used these to group shoppers into mood profiles. An iPad application was designed to capture the data and make recommendations on products based on their state of mind.

We engineered the stimuli specifically to elicit certain feelings and tested theories with focus groups of 50 people to rank each UNIQLO t-shirt against these mental states.

The experience took under 5 minutes, used real data, and EEG analysis to recommend the perfect t-shirt to your mood.

This technology is in stable production release.

Success was seen throughout the business – driving in-store traffic, email capture and establishing UNIQLO as the go-to t-shirt destination. However, the most outstanding results were the global coverage and influence.

UMOOD was covered by innovation, design and retail media and positioned UNIQLO at the centre of a worldwide debate surrounding the future of retail. Coverage was received from global authorities including Mashable, Huffington Post, Cosmo, Nylon, PSFK, CNET and Trend Hunter, as well as leading local Australia influencers such as Gizmodo, News.com.au, Channel7 News, and CMO.

- 20 million+ earned media impressions worth $1.1 million

- 2 million+ social media impressions

- solidifying UNIQLO’s position as a global retail innovation leader

UMOOD allowed shoppers to engage with the brand in a more meaningful way. It demonstrated that a retail giant can have a one-on-one conversation with its customers and, most importantly, paved the way to re-shape the future of retail.

By incorporating it into the path-to-purchase in the retail space, UMOOD utilised neurotechnology in new way. It redefined the way we shop and opened up a personal conversation between UNIQLO and the customer.

In a retail industry first, UMOOD read the brainwaves of shoppers and challenged consumers to shop with their heads instead of their hearts to discover the perfect t-shirt to suit their mood. This meant shoppers could cut through the clutter and know instantly what to shop.

The activation was personal, engaging and most importantly took people on a journey through their inner most feelings to purchase.

Relatively new to the Australian market, UNIQLO needed to be recognised by local shoppers and build their reputation as a go-to shopping destination.

In addition to this, UNIQLO wanted to establish themselves as an innovative retailer—to align with their already established global positioning—within a new market and had just four weeks to do it.

With a budget of $110k, the brief was to raise awareness of UNIQLO in Australia and drive in-store traffic by positioning them as a fashion innovator and the home of t-shirts.