/article-new/2011/09/sakeswindow.jpg?lossy)
Apple isn't the only retailer to put iPads in its window displays. Saks Fifth Avenue also has a window full of iPads, though not to advertise the tablet. Instead, the company is using iPads and Apple Cinema Displays to promote haute couture.
Saks has partnered with Stylist.com to celebrate Fashion's Night Out with the unique window display at its flagship Fifth Avenue location, just up the street from Apple's Fifth Ave. cube.
The window displays, designed, developed and built by Gin Lane Media, feature 64 iPad 2s in one center window, and nine Cinema Displays in each of two side windows. The company wrote custom software for the installation, and Dan Kenger, Digital Creative Director for Gin Lane says that the iPads are linked together via a local network. “We are able to get all the iPads to talk to each other as well as perfect the timing to produce elegant fades and control what device should display what.”
Hat tip to The Loop.
Top Rated Comments
"If you don't have 64 iPads, well, you don't have 64 iPads."
Because that's something that not even Target would do. This isn't about practicality, nor simplicity. Hell, they could've achieved the same effect, buying 64 Samsung Galaxy Tablets, and saved themselves a big chunk of change. But that's not the point. It's about pairing the best with the best. (no, I'm not a crazy "fanboy")
The REAL message here is:
"If Apple sold clothes, they'd be us."
That is exactly the point of this display. This is Saks Fifth Avenue selling haute couture merchandise. The fact that they are using iPads conveys that they are hip to current technology and that they have money to spend on an extravagant display like this.
This is just another notch in Apple's "high fashion" belt, which is quite an important level of mindshare. Normally consumer tech wouldn't fit in this area, but Apple certainly manages to.
Imagine Saks helping build your brand? That sort of advertising (to that segment of the market) is hugely significant.
This ^^^
Hit it right on the button.
Image over content. ;)