Consumers across China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia are able to create their own personalized playlists while browsing through apparel and accessories from the summer collection. H&M is encouraging fans to share tunes on social media platforms to win prizes while an in-store component pushes interaction with iPads to hear the musical style for different items.

?Instead of browsing through product images like a traditional fashion catalogue, people can explore what music styles the fashion items they love represent,? said Sascha Engel, deputy head of digital at Ogilvy, Shanghai. 

?By putting together favorite fashion items of the catalogue they create music that represents their fashion style,? he said.

H&M teamed up with Ogilvy and Mather Advertising on the campaign to add flavor to the catalog and the brand.

Mixing it up
Users begin the experience by selecting their favorite products from the summer collection. 

Each apparel product on the mobile catalog has a unique sound effect as each carries a different style of music. 

Users can drag and drop an item from the catalog to a sampler that mixes the corresponding sounds into a tune. Users can choose from one of four digital Skullcandy headphones to use during the experience. The user can then record and remix the song. 

When users share their creations on social media channels, the mix with the most likes will be entered to win a pair of Skullcandy headphones. 

The experience extends to H&M?s stores, as iPad terminals will be available to showcase the product line and the music style that each item represents. 

Similar to in-store shopping, music creates an inviting atmosphere for consumers, encouraging them to spend more time with the products. 

Tuning the soul
Music is an easy addition to any campaign and can influence consumer shopping patterns. 

Coca-Cola began a campaign in China that put lines from popular songs on bottles of soda, allowing for on-demand access to content and creating a shareable experience via popular social application WeChat. 

Each Lyric Coke bottle featured a QR code that could be scanned to activate a short clip featuring the lyric on that bottle. The animated musical clips were designed specifically to be shareable in social media, and were being positioned as a whole new way to consume music ? the shareable musical sound bite (see story). 

Food chain McDonalds also associated music with its products. 

McDonald?s helped McFlurry fans get the scoop on their favorite pop musicians via a new music entertainment show appearing on 4Music in Britain this summer. 

Summer Scoop consists of four 30-minute shows focused on the personalities of some of pop music?s biggest names. Mobile users, who can watch 4Music from the Box TV + app, were encouraged to share a selfie for a chance to appear in the final episode of the show (see story). 

In addition to music, WeChat, the popular Asian messaging app, is the key to reaching consumers in this region, and H&M?s music mixer is conveniently compatible. 

?Very importantly in regards to strategy is that this fashion mixer is optimized to live fully within mobile social networking channels like WeChat,? Mr. Engel said. 

?Teens can access the mixer fully through WeChat and can share within the social network.? 

Final Take ?
Caitlyn Bohannon, editorial assistant for Mobile Marketer, New York