A Tweet-Powered Holiday Retail Experience

The Science Project worked with Creative Director Nicola Formichetti to create Barney's first ever digital window display for the 2011 holiday season. The installation featured a galactic Lady Gaga born of the cosmos
and asked users one simple question:What’s your wish?

CHALLENGE: Conceptually, the primary challenge was to unify the high creative aspirations of Barney's, Lady Gaga, and Formichetti in a simple and social experience that would engage consumers at Barney's and across the world.


Technically, the main challenge involved developing a suite of custom local and mobile solutions based on the Twitter API that gave priority to geo-located tweets, allowing the tweets to be moderated immediately into the installation.

SOLUTION: The Science Project worked carefully with Barney's, Formichetti and Tim Richardson (the director of the animated film sequence) at the outset of the project to establish a simple and enticing engagement experience. Our goal was to make the experience simple, magical and interesting to anyone who passed the window or entered the store.


TSP also designed and developed the suite of custom applications that drove the  dynamic Twitter message display. We designed the system to prioritize tweets made by people near the window itself, and created an iPhone app-based system that allowed real-time moderation by Formichetti’s team from anywhere in the world. Finally, we wrapped all of these elements and the film sequence together into one system that experienced zero downtime from its launch on Cyber Monday through January 2, 2012.

Ultimately we wanted to create an experience in which anyone worldwide could participate and which would resonate socially; the joy of New York’s holiday windows needn’t be confined to residents and visitors only.


IMPACT: Overall, the project led to a retail touchpoint of the highest order that was at once social, celebratory and meaningful, and which turned passive viewers into active participants, allowing them to participate in a worldwide love letter from Lady Gaga and Barney's to millions of Twitter users worldwide

“It was incredible what the The Science Project did with Window No. 2 at Barney's and I am thrilled for Q4 to be working with such an incredible design and build team.”

-Nicola Formichetti, Lady Gaga’s chief stylist