The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

November 7, 2014 | 3 min read

Argos has created a Santa List app as part of its Christmas push which launched today, 7 November.

The app is the first product to come out of Argos’ Hackathon, which took place at its digital hub in February this year.

Aimed at three to seven-year olds, the app allows children to choose their gifts from a series of themed sections and over 3,000 products. They can put them onto a mood board which can be personalised by drawing or putting digital stickers on favourite toys.

Kids can then send it to the North Pole via an email – which also goes to a parent’s account.

Explaining the concept, Argos’ head of digital innovation, Neil Tinegate, told The Drum that they wanted to bring the magic of kids circling and ripping pages out of the Argos catalogue at Christmas into the digital era.

“The Argos catalogue has been part of Christmas for over 40 years, and as digital technology increasingly becomes part of everyday life, we wanted to channel the fun and excitement of wish list making with the Argos catalogue into a digital format," he added.

Parents are able to put controls onto the app, for example setting limits on price or the number of items which the child is able to see or pick.

While kids are unable to see product information, parents are able to see details such as price or reviews as well as in-store offers on the toys in the email.

The app has been quietly available on iOS and Android since late October, although Argos has now kicked off a digital, email and PR campaign in a bid to ramp up downloads.

“But organically we’ve had five figure downloads,” claimed Tingate.

He also said that circa half of the children that use it send an email and around 60 per cent of those emails get clicked through by parents.

Tinegate said that the app will be available until around Boxing Day, but the success so far has suggested that a similar app which is available all year could be a viable option.

“We’ve been really excited with how people have taken to it. So whether we carry on and do something with this in another guise, like around birthdays and other events, is up for discussion. We’ll take a lot of learning from it but the early signs are really positive,” he added.

REPL Digital assisted Argos with the animation build of the app alongside The Partners and creative agency of record, CHI&Partners.

It comes as Argos rolled out its festive ad, described as a "modern twist" to Christmas. The spot is an extension of the £10m rebrand campaign - 'Get Set Go Argos' - which launched last month in a bid to get people to "sit up and take notice" at what the retailer has been doing to improve the in-store experience over the past two years.

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