The holiday campaign is one of the brand's most important moments of the year, and the default playbook is promotional storytelling. We built a browser game instead, one with real mechanics people would actually replay.
The commerce couldn't feel like an interruption. So top products became power-ups during gameplay, and when a session ended, those same items surfaced with a direct add-to-cart. The bridge from playing to buying felt natural because it was built that way from the start.
Holiday items lived inside the game as power-ups, not in a banner next to it. Discovery happened mid-game, and purchase was one tap after the session ended.
We designed and built custom arcade cabinets running the game, installed in select stores. At 5th Avenue in NYC, two large-format screens with iPad controllers turned it into head-to-head competition people could see from the street.
The cabinets connected to Vans Family, turning in-store play into sign-ups and linking web, retail, and CRM into a single campaign ecosystem.
Engagement and conversion grew double digits over prior holiday campaigns, Vans Family sign-ups jumped, and store foot traffic increased significantly during the campaign. People came in to watch, stayed to play, and left signed up.
What started as a digital activation became a repeatable framework for campaigns that blend digital and physical.
