Sak's Fifth Avenue: Holiday Your Way

Killed the snow globe. Built a fitting room with a view.

Services

Innovation, Platform Strategy

Role

Associate Creative Director. Concept and UX/UI. The original pitch put users inside a snow globe. Killed it. Load time was slow, the metaphor was claustrophobic, and nobody wants to see themselves inside a small object on a small screen. People want to be transported. So I gave them that instead.

Impact

Repositioned Yahoo/In the Know as a credible luxury player — a market they had no prior foothold in. The AR experience opened doors to future luxury partnerships that hadn't been possible before.

Overview

Holiday 2020. The pandemic was at its height. Stores weren't just empty — customers were afraid to walk inside them. Saks faced a dual challenge. Retail was in crisis. And Gen Z, the audience the brand needed most for the future, had never been the audience they built for.

The sold idea was a snow globe. Users would appear inside it, framed by falling snow, holding Saks products. It sounded charming in a deck. On a phone it was slow, small, and made you look like you were stuck inside a paperweight. I killed it and rebuilt around what users actually wanted from AR — to be somewhere else, seamlessly.

Strategy

Treat the audience like collaborators, not wallets. Users chose an AR holiday backdrop. Tried on Saks products with a turn of the head. Shared the look as a Story or Reel. Every share pointed back to the Gift Guide. The mechanic became the amplification.

The Reframe

People don't want to look at themselves inside a novelty. They want to be transported somewhere they'd rather be. Once I named that, the AR filter changed from a gimmick to a fitting room with a view. Same technology. Completely different user experience.

The System

The activation ran on one insight. People love looking at themselves. Not as vanity. As identity work. Gen Z performs taste before they buy anything. Every share was a seamless path back to the Gift Guide. The customer became the media buy.

Looking Back

The filter worked because it treated Gen Z like collaborators. What I'd push harder for next time is turning the mechanic into a permanent Saks channel, not a holiday moment. Once the audience learned to shop through AR, there was room to build a year-round program — seasonal backdrops, capsule collections, artist collaborations. Got Saks into a new platform. Didn't push hard enough to keep them there.

Credits

DUANE BRUTON        © 2026
Did I mention you have nice hair

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