Yahoo and Saks team up to launch an AR holiday experience

According to surveys by Drapers, more than half of Gen Z and millennials visit Instagram for fashion inspiration, and a similar number have clicked through a social post to make a purchase.¹ Three-quarters of millennials say a brand's social media presence influences their purchase decisions.²

Getting real with AR

Working closely with the luxury retailer, Yahoo Creative Studios developed an interactive AR selfie filter designed to show shoppers how they want to celebrate the holidays.

This fall, visitors to Saks' Instagram account can launch a holiday filter that transports them to a magical Saks’-inspired holiday world. With a simple head nod, you can experience three different filters: a glam filter with sparkle enhancements that adorn you with accessories and place you at a festive holiday party, a ski slope filter that outfits you with goggles and a warm scarf, and finally a seaside resort filter with shades and a sun hat for those that prefer their holidays on the beach! It invites you to step into Saks’s stylish holiday world and buy with confidence as you virtually "try on" this season’s best travel looks.

All products in the AR experience are featured in the Saks Holiday Gift Guide on its website and in the Yahoo In The Know (ITK) Gift Guide. ITK is our award-winning content and shopping guide for millennials and Gen Z.  

Keeping consumers in the know

Generating awareness of the new AR feature is where Yahoo’s extensive content network and more than 240 million Yahoo ConnectID⁴ user profiles came into play, reaching 91% of the US internet population and 87% of Gen-Z and Millennials.⁵

A promotional video, which also included a shoppable holiday gift guide featuring Saks-curated products, runs on ads placed on Yahoo-owned properties, driving millennials and Gen Z shoppers directly to the AR holiday filter at the top of the ITK gift guide. Product links and the video are featured across social media, while QR codes also drive users directly to the Saks Instagram AR experience.  

With an audience of 20 million monthly⁶ readers and 60+ million followers on social media, ITK reaches young audiences at scale. Add in the entire Yahoo ecosystem, videos are viewed more than 1.2 billion times each month.⁷

The Saks holiday awareness campaign also employed native video and mobile moments video executions across the Yahoo ecosystem. Taking advantage of the 200 billion data signals Yahoo collects each day from its network of properties, the campaign was built around the core audience components of:

• Predictive segments: Using machine learning, Yahoo Creative Studios built a quantitative model that leveraged more than 2 million different user attributes to predict the purchase probability for each potential customer.⁸
• Precise targeting: The campaign specifically focused on three categories derived from users' Yahoo ConnectID profiles, aimed at people with a history of shopping for luxury goods and clothing.

Technology drives purchase decisions

By leveraging Yahoo’s technology and its massive audience reach, Saks was able to create a custom consumer experience that positioned the brand as both exciting and at the forefront of retail innovation. Originally a concept co-developed with Verizon Business, this innovation is a milestone in the longstanding relationship between Verizon Business, Yahoo, and Saks.

To learn more about how Yahoo and Yahoo Creative Studios can bring your brand to life in new, exciting ways for younger shoppers, let’s connect today.

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¹,³ Drapers, ‘Gen Z and Millennials 2020 report’, Sep 2020

² Animoto, ‘Where Your Audience Is Watching, Discovering, and Buying’ Infographic, March 2020

⁴Comscore, Media Matrix, Key Measures, Yahoo (and Microsoft Partnership), US, 18+, October 2021

⁵ Comscore, Media Matrix, Demographic Profiles, Yahoo (and Microsoft Partnership), 13-34, October 2021

⁶ Comscore, Media Matrix, intheknow.com, October 2021

⁷,⁸ Yahoo internal data, 2021