Giorgio Armani draws focus to eyewear line via interactive video site

Italian designer Giorgio Armani is promoting its line of eyewear with an interactive Web site that lets consumers create their own Armani advertisements.

Armani’s Frames of Life campaign Web site lets consumers make their own customized video ads by piecing together different clips of content, or create print ads from screen grabs of the Optical Collections’ main campaign video. Armani fans can find the Web site at http://www.giorgioarmani-framesoflife.com.

Armani produces upscale collections of apparel, accessories, cosmetics and fragrances. The designer is promoting the Frames of Life Web site on its Facebook fan page.

The designer was not available for comment by press deadline.

Direct, shoot
The Frames of Life Web site says the initiative was inspired by Armani’s 1980s-era eyewear collections.

Consumers who enter the site are prompted to choose their language preference: English or Italian.

Once inside, visitors view the main promotional video for the Optical Collection and the Frames of Life campaign – an evocative, roughly two-minute-long black-and-white film featuring a number of shots of characters wearing Armani glasses.

After the video finishes, users are taken to the site’s homepage, where they are prompted to either “Direct” or “Shoot.”

When visitors choose the Direct feature, they again can view the campaign video.

The site then generates a horizontal listing of seconds-long video clips, which users can select to place in a timeline that will serves as the organization for the consumer’s custom ad.

Frames of Life "Direct" feature

Users can intercut video clips with bits of text – for example, “I Indulge in every single gesture that gets me ready for a new day.”

Users can select clips for their ads by clicking on them in the listing, which then starts the video, and then clicking again to add them to the timeline.

Site visitors can view their creations by clicking the blue play button at the bottom of the screen. If they are happy with the result, they can share the custom ad with their friends on Facebook or via email.

Meanwhile, the Web site’s Shoot feature loads up a flash player that shows the campaign video once more. However, this time a picture icon between two blue brackets appear in the middle of the video.

Frames of Life "Shoot" feature

Consumers can move the brackets by moving over the area between them with the mouse, and click to take up to 21 screen grabs of different moments from the video.

Afterward, users can click the blue Next button at the bottom of the screen to view each of the screen grabs individually, and match them to pieces of text that will appear on the right of the image.

At the end of the process, a slideshow appears with all the screengrabs alongside their corresponding bits of text.

Just as with the Direct feature, visitors can send their creations to their friends via Facebook or email.

A navigation bar on the top of the page lets consumers switch between direct and shoot modes, view the collection or find more information about the campaign, including all the media and a press release.

The collection area of the Web site lets visitors view all of the different eyewear in the new Optical Collection. They can select glasses from a horizontal listing at the bottom of the page, zoom in to view glasses in finer detail and switch between different colors.

A 360-degree feature lets users view the items from different angles.

And, as in all the site’s other sections, fans can send images of the eyewear to their friends via Facebook or email.

Finally, the campaign section also features the flashing words that supposedly served as the inspiration for the initiative:

“Most people wish for an extraordinary and successful life, to be filled with unique moments,” followed by, “In reality, today real luxury is not an asset, but a state of mind that allows you to love each day in a unique and authentic way.”

Final Take

Peter Finocchiaro is editorial assistant at Luxury Daily, New York