Live at Macy's - Life in a shop window

Live in a Macy's window

Life in a Macy's window

Next to Times Square and Fifth Avenue, the area around Herald Square on 34th street is probably one of the busiest areas in Manhattan in terms of foot traffic, tourist penetration, and shopping behavior. Every day, tens of thousands of commuters are rushing from Penn Station into their office towers, and each night thousands of Knicks or Rangers or Lady Gaga fans are on their pilgrimage into Madison Square Garden.

If you are a retailer, advertiser or marketer, and you want to get people's attention in this area, you better come out strong, or you'll fade into a highly cluttered background filled with billboards, electronic displays, phone booth ads, street teams, public stunts, and the list goes on.

Macy's itself is usually doing a great job with their window displays, especially during the holiday season. The rest of the year, you pretty much get used to it, and simply walk past the building without hardly ever paying attention to what's going on inside.

Not so this week. Right in the middle of 34th Street, between Broadway and 7th Avenue, a big cloud of people formed on the sidewalk, right in front of one of the windows. Inside? A carpet, two chairs, a table, a bookshelf, and a bed. On the bed, in PJ's, and with a laptop in his hands - comedian Mike Birbiglia.

"Why is comedian Mike Birbiglia living in a Macy's window? He's here all week - to put the freshness of Ultra Downy April Fresh to the test."

The entire story is streamed live via webcam on the Downy facebook page. A bunch of promotions are cleverly woven into the story. Outside, on the street, you can hear him and his buddies chatting over the speakers. The whole thing is quite funny and a brilliant idea to make people stop for a moment. Not that I'm in the market for Downy - I end up buying the small packages at the local laundromat all the time, but it has put the brand on my radar. And that - for a marketer - is a huge success.

Related link:
Mike Birbiglia live in the Macy's window