Ben Sherman needed a way to amplify their "The Original Button Up Since 1963" campaign on social media, drive customers instore, and build brand awareness — without relying on traditional advertising alone. Social Wiiv deployed custom Social Photobooth technology across 4 flagship stores, turning every shirt try-on into a branded social moment that rewarded sharing with an instant 15% instore discount.
Ben Sherman's "The Original Button Up Since 1963" campaign carried a clear brand positioning — heritage, authenticity, and the enduring appeal of the British button-up shirt. The challenge was translating that brand story into an instore experience that would not just celebrate the campaign, but actively extend its reach onto social media and give customers a tangible incentive to visit a flagship store, engage with the product, and share their experience with their network.
A passive poster campaign wouldn't cut it. The brand needed a mechanic that:
— Created an interactive, brand-immersive instore moment that stopped customers in the store
— Captured first-party customer data (name, contact details, and marketing opt-in) at scale
— Generated branded social content at the point of product trial — the most powerful advocacy moment in retail
— Rewarded participation with an immediate, tangible incentive that drove same-visit conversion
— Ran continuously across 4 stores for 6 months without requiring staff intervention for every interaction
"We needed something that would bring the Button Up campaign to life inside the store — something customers would interact with, share, and come back for."
— Ben Sherman Marketing TeamSocial Wiiv designed and deployed a fully custom Social Photobooth solution built specifically around the Ben Sherman Button Up campaign. This included custom-designed physical plinths housing the touchscreen hardware — with campaign poster panels mounted above each plinth for maximum instore visibility — plus a bespoke touchscreen application that guided customers through the campaign, captured their photo, delivered their branded image via SMS and email, and rewarded social sharing with an instant 15% instore discount code.
Social Wiiv designed and manufactured custom plinths to house the touchscreen displays in each Ben Sherman flagship store. The plinths were designed to sit neatly in the retail environment — professional, brand-consistent, and positioned to draw customers naturally toward the photobooth experience. A campaign poster panel mounted above each plinth ensured the Button Up activation was visible from across the store floor, driving awareness and curiosity before customers even reached the touchscreen.
At the heart of the activation was a custom-developed touchscreen application built around the Button Up campaign. Before the photo, the app played branded campaign videos explaining the Ben Sherman Button Up story and walking customers through the mechanic — ensuring every participant understood the campaign context before they took their photo. The app then guided customers through a simple photo capture, registration, and delivery flow — all from a single touchscreen, without requiring any staff assistance.
Every photo taken through the app was automatically branded with the Ben Sherman "The Original Button Up Since 1963" photo frame — delivered to the customer's phone via SMS and email link, hosted on a custom-branded microsite. The customer could view their photo, share it to social media with a single tap, and the moment they shared, an instant 15% discount code was dispatched — redeemable in any Ben Sherman store, on the same visit.
The Ben Sherman Button Up Social Photobooth campaign delivered measurable results across all four dimensions of the brief: social amplification, instore footfall conversion, brand data capture, and campaign awareness. Running continuously for 6 months across Sandton, Rosebank, Pretoria, and Cape Town Waterfront, the platform operated autonomously — requiring no staff intervention for each interaction — while generating a consistent pipeline of branded social content, discount conversions, and customer opt-ins.
The 81% voucher redemption rate is the standout metric — of the 760 customers who took a photo and shared it to social media to earn their discount code, 619 used that code on the same store visit. This reflects the mechanic's core strength: the discount was delivered at the precise moment of maximum purchase intent — the customer was already in the store, already wearing the shirt, already engaged with the brand. The social share preceded the purchase by minutes, not days.
The 587 opt-ins represent a qualified, consent-based CRM asset built entirely from customers who actively engaged with the campaign — far higher quality than passive digital advertising audiences. Each opt-in was captured at the point of product trial, with name, surname, email, and mobile number — a complete first-party record for ongoing Ben Sherman marketing communications.
"The photobooth turned every shirt try-on into a shareable brand moment — and 81% of the people who shared it came back to the counter and bought."
— Ben Sherman Marketing TeamSocial Wiiv can design and deploy a fully custom instore Social Photobooth solution — with branded photo frames, SMS and email delivery, social sharing mechanics, and instant discount rewards — that drives footfall, captures first-party data, and converts browsers into buyers across your retail network.