New York & Co. Turns The Page On How It Designs Online Campaigns

By TRACY MAPLE Managing Editor, Digital Content at Internet Retailer

The apparel retailer wanted a more engaging, easy-to-shop web experience for consumers, so it tried a new platform on its website and boosted its views sixfold. Not so long ago, Paul Carroll, vice president of digital & e-commerce creative at New York & Co., was daunted by the challenge of translating the apparel retailer’s shiny, colorful print catalogs and mailers into an engaging digital format.

The online version of the catalog was “just a page turner. We’d put a link on a page. The experience was one page at a time. We were not able to serve it up on mobile devices or smartphones. I’ll always remember when the CEO said, ‘What is that? It looks like a beta test,’” Carroll says.

He wanted a new way to present the clothing and engage shoppers; he wanted pop-up video, overlays, animated type and motion. He found it after using a pilot program in the fall and then witnessing a spring dress line sell out online in less than a week when it was presented and linked on New York & Co.’s website using Zmags Creator, a rich media platform that does not require complex coding.

Drag-and-drop tools, asset libraries and widgets let designers create digital content without needing technical expertise, says Zmags, which likens Creator “to PowerPoint for digital content marketing.”