A high street marketing campaign which aimed to drive sales of a new tablet in Curry‘s PC World appears to have delivered positive results.

Nexus Engage, which focuses on customer engagement and driving consumer behaviour, has seen its latest campaign for the new Microsoft Surface 2 achieve over 90 per cent engagement with shoppers.

CEO Simon Ellson is confident that his product has the reach and potential to be successful across Britain‘s high streets.

The interactive display in an empty shop window has been constructed on two key principles, the first being an epidemic of empty shops in the UK, with 46,000 currently vacant, expected to increase by over 5,000 in the next few years, he says. The second is recognising the changing demands of the consumer: they want entertainment and engagement to be an integral part of their shopping experience. According to Ellson, the secret is not to overcomplicate things. Having seen the limitations to a system whereby shoppers had to send tweets in order to light up a Christmas tree in a similar window display, he realised the importance of going back to basics with a simple and striking format.

The result? When the firm created a display for Now TV and PC World, shoppers had only to press a huge pink button in order to receive a discount voucher on the spot. Consumers could go straight to the PC World store opposite and redeem the voucher instantly. A valuable lesson was learned. This strategy saw a dramatic increase in consumer engagement and was the inspiration for the playful fruit machine format adopted for the Microsoft Surface 2.

Its Microsoft Surface 2 project has seen even better results. Attracting over 1,200 players a day, the fruit machine game hits the brief of driving engagement and brand awareness at Kent‘s Bluewater shopping centre. With 31,662 consumers interacting with the window in its first week with an average viewing time of 9.7 seconds, this format has potential to be rolled out nationwide.

Ellson also believes such a format has beneficial knock-on effects for the retail market. Replacing empty high street shop windows with engaging interactive content would increase footfall on the high street and stimulate demand to the benefit of nearby retailers. Furthermore, landlords are reported to prefer such formats as they make a shop front look more attractive and eye-catching than normal wooden hoardings.

Such interactive displays can be used anywhere, in shopping centres or on the high street (the electronic displays are fully waterproof), and could create demand from what would otherwise be reams of empty premises.