Creating Local Community with UNIQLO in the US

  • Agency: Independent
  • Client: UNIQLO
  • Role: Creative Director, Strategy, Content and Production
  • First and Third Party Research
  • Audience Insights
  • Content Strategy
  • Marketing/GTM Strategy
  • Planning
  • Creative Direction
  • Production
  • Influencer Marketing

UNIQLO was kicking off a two-year-long season of store openings—starting with Los Angeles. While the brand is well-known globally, brand connection was much lower in the United States. They needed a strategy to connect with the communities where they were launching—driving brand affinity and anticipation for the store openings.

We recommended engaging local influencers and creators in each launch city ahead of opening day, authentically building brand affinity and connection through collaborative creative, storytelling, and a robust seeding program.

Our first focus was Los Angeles and Orange County, where a number of stores were opening, culminating in a grand opening celebration at the Beverly Center.

We worked with 12 local tastemakers and influencers—including street artists, musicians, writers, stylists, and even city planners—to share stories of their city through a short documentary series on YouTube.

The series highlighted UNIQLO’s commitment to LifeWear—clothes for living—while authentically connecting the brand to Los Angeles and its surrounding communities.

The 12-part documentary series created an authentic connection to Los Angeles through the voices and lenses of real Angelenos.
In each city, we ran custom gifting programs with local creators and influencers. These programs were entirely organic—completely unpaid—but offered influencers carte blanche to shop, with no set posting parameters. The result? Trust earned and mutually beneficial relationships built.

Our Los Angeles–area gifting program alone earned 6.5 million impressions in under six weeks.
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Our approach was repeated in Seattle, Boston, and Chicago—partnering with content creators to share stories of their cities and running robust influencer seeding campaigns. Each launch culminated in well-attended, media-covered store openings.
The launches were a resounding success—particularly the multi-store launch in the Los Angeles area.
UNIQLO was so grateful to the city for truly welcoming them into their communities that they wanted to run a give-back campaign. This campaign ran concurrently with their charitable giving project, A Warm Gesture, in collaboration with Pharrell Williams.
We produced a one-day, multi-site activation across Los Angeles and Orange County, working with local businesses and organizations to make popular L.A. area attractions free for one day. This event was a quick-turn, highly complex production that included influencer activations and securing national media coverage.

The activations included:
  • 1,000 free entries to the L.A. Zoo
  • Free ice skating at Pershing Square
  • Free Diddy Riese ice cream sandwiches all day
  • 1,000 free Short Order burgers
  • 1,000 free Pacific Wheel rides in Santa Monica
  • Free spin classes at SoulCycle

Every activation sold out before 5 p.m.—many within the first hour. Attendance for the events exceeded 10,000 people and generated over 1 million engagements across social media.

Together, these efforts solidified UNIQLO’s place in the hearts of local communities and proved the power of thoughtful, community-driven brand activations.