Hi Lovie Awards judges, this is the case for GANNI

Summary

• Change is, and always has been, a core part of the fashion industry. However, COVID-19 has brought about the industry’s most dramatic transformation. To stay ahead of the competition and cater to shifting consumer demands, GANNI re-imagined the way that they connected with their B2B buyers and presented their newest collection. Together we built a retro microsite that emulates a Windows 98 desktop built in just six weeks.
• The challenge was to present the brand’s newest collection to their B2B buyers while ensuring that the experience reflected GANNI’s brand personality and made the user smile. Discover how we did this by reading “Transforming GANNI’s Creative Director’s computer into a showroom”.
• To ensure that the experience felt like more than simply business, we included a couple small playful digital elements which you can find out more about in the section “Taking the showroom beyond a simple lookbook”
• In six weeks, we designed and coded a digital showroom using Netlify and Contentful to construct a small-scale coherent, self-contained application.

Crafting a digitally immersive showroom in 6 weeks

Four times a year, the Scandinavian cult brand GANNI would travel to Paris, London and New York for sales appointments. Their Pre Spring 21 collection was scheduled to be sold to buyers in May 2020. However, COVID-19 disrupted the company’s plans, forcing them to quickly re-imagine the way that they connected with their B2B buyers and presented their newest collection. Together with MOON agency, GANNI turned to DEPT® to help them create a unique and immersive digital showroom experience. The result? A retro microsite that emulates a Windows 98 desktop which featured a personalised playlist, a lookbook that combines both video and still elements, campaign imagery as well as private folders and dress-up dolls, all of this built in just six weeks.

Nicolaj Reffstrup, GANNI’s founder comments “As COVID-19 hit, we realised that we had to radically rethink our approach to B2B sales. However, we needed to ensure that the project was 100% on-brand, totally immersive, digitally savvy and added value to our partners.”

Transforming GANNI’s Creative Director’s computer into a showroom

Although the aim was to present the brand’s newest collection to their B2B buyers, we wanted to take it a step further and create an immersive experience which incorporates some playful elements that reflect GANNI’s brand personality and make the user smile. Therefore, together with GANNI and MOON agency, we came up with the idea of recreating Ditte’s, GANNI’s Creative Director, desktop and transforming it into an immersive digital showroom experience.

The core of the showroom experience was the lookbook which enabled buyers to have a 360-degree view of each style, fit, shape and texture of the garment. The user experience is simple and intuitive, making it easy to navigate through the brand’s various product offerings in a surprising and engaging way.

Crafting a microsite using netlify and contentful

Our team of experts had six weeks to build and code a digital showroom for GANNI. Given this tight timeframe, we opted to use a customisable blank slate Netlify CMS which enabled fast and flexible development via a friendly user interface. Meaning we were able to deploy it quickly and GANNI employees could also easily work with it. In addition, we used Contentful for media hosting purposes. This enabled us to construct a small-scale coherent, self-contained application.

Building the future of wholesale

In six weeks time, together with GANNI and MOON agency, we created and built a digital showroom that enables Ganni’s B2B customers across the globe to discover a more personal side to the fashion brand, browse the newest collection and save any items they wish to buy. In the words of Nicolaj Reffstrup, GANNI’s founder, “The result was a completely tailored digital platform with an interesting brand narrative and content that was multi-layer. We were able to offer a high level of service to our wholesale partners as well as creating something that felt super personal in the shape of Ditte’s actual desktop.”

As the world becomes ever more digital, GANNI reinvented how they conduct and drive their B2B sales while staying true to their brand value, ain’t that fashion-forward!