Redken Debuts Interactive Billboard, Virtual Try-On

L’Oreal Group’s Redken haircare brand in April debuted an interactive, 3D billboard in New York’s Times Square to showcase a new product collection along with an augmented reality-enabled virtual try-on experience. 

The billboard promoted Redken’s Acidic Color Gloss collection, which launched in January, via a 30-second campaign featuring two five-minute roadblocks each day April 3-5 and again April 10-12, from 7-10 p.m.

The collection was created to extend “salon-like shine” on colored/dyed hair at home, according to the company, and the billboard displays the “dramatic results” of the collection in 3D animation across a high-definition, 25,000-square-foot screen dubbed "The Big Kahuna.” Redken says this Times Square screen is the largest in the U.S.

The billboard invites tourists and consumers to “see yourself in Times Square” next to a massive QR code. The code directs to a Redken.com landing page enabling users to virtually try-on the Acidic Color Gloss treatment using an AR filter that applies the same “glass-like shine” the collection should offer to users’ hair, according to a media release. 

The filter also puts users’ before-and-after pictures front and center on the 3D billboard via their smartphone/device. 

Users will also receive a shareable video of their after results superimposed on a virtual depiction of the Times Square billboard that can be shared across social media channels. Once participants complete the virtual try-on, they'll receive an exclusive offer to purchase the collection on Redken.com.

Redken says the campaign is a way to tell the story of the new collection in a “larger-than-life display.”

"As one of the first companies to take a scientific approach to haircare, we are always seeking out opportunities to innovate, whether it be with our product formulations or how we deliver them to market,” Redken general manager U.S., Candy Gebhart, said in the release. “The Acidic Color Gloss collection utilizes some of our most advanced technology yet to provide long-lasting color vibrancy and lock in intense molecular-level shine – and the results truly speak for themselves. We're thrilled to be revealing the benefits of the collection in an exciting, accessible new way that opens the dialogue around haircare far and wide."