Any major retailer knows that it’s not enough to simply appear festive when the holiday season comes around. It’s the ultimate battle to capture the attention of eager and excited shoppers, with every store competing to cut through the noise, stop people in motion, get them in the door, and turn Christmas lists into revenue.
As retailers across the country took their campaigns to the next level, this retailer knew they needed to do the same.
Enter: A massive, impossible-to-miss, visually stunning holiday activation that not only captured the holiday spirit, but sparked a 6-8% lift in comparable store sales across multiple locations.
However, the path to revenue wasn’t simple — in fact, it had the potential to be downright dangerous.
Creating an Unmissable Holiday Moment That Connects with Shoppers – and Drives Revenue
As the holiday season approached in 2025, the retailer had a specific, ambitious goal in mind: to produce an extravagant, highly branded outdoor holiday display that would stop shoppers in their tracks — and to make it work across 11 different store locations.
From idea to concept, the vision of creating a display that could be seen from the storefront, the parking lots, and in some locations even the freeway, was, to put it simply, iconic.
A true display of the creative genius of their internal team, holiday gifts were designed to be transformed into big, bold 3D displays featured on each store’s awning, along with a Christmas tree adorned with customer-favorite brands displayed on massive exterior banners in eye-catching colors.
But the biggest challenge was yet to come…
To withstand wind, rain, and the winter chill without creating a safety hazard for shoppers and employees alike, these big and bold displays needed to be engineered, produced, and installed with extreme precaution across each of the 11 stores and their unique formats.
With Ambitious Designs Comes Complex Renderings & Engineering
Armed with a stunning and spirited campaign vision, this iconic retailer turned to The Imagine Shop by SuperGraphics to transform that vision into an unforgettable holiday shopping experience — and ultimately, boost revenue.
But with an ambitious vision came complex engineering, construction, coordination, and installation.
For both the 3D Christmas gifts and the large banners displayed on each store’s awning, The Imagine Shop team engineered detailed 3D renderings. Each 3D display design was produced in Dibond — a premium, rigid aluminum composite material featuring two pre-painted aluminum sheets bonded to a polyethylene core — creating shadow, depth, and an unmissable focal point for each store’s entrance.
Working closely with the retailer’s team, The Imagine Shop crew conducted in-depth, in-person site surveys to evaluate and plan for store-specific conditions. This served as a critical step in identifying the viability and safest installation approach for each location.
Based on the site surveys, it was determined that not every location could support the safety of the 3D gift box installation and the Christmas tree exterior banner. When it became apparent that those safety requirements couldn’t be met for several of the stores, The Imagine Shop and the brand collaborated to pivot quickly – offering alternate graphic executions like large gift box window graphics or banner-only installs, ensuring every location still presented a cohesive, standout holiday presence.
For the stores that were proven to be able to accommodate the Dibond 3D gift boxes and banners, several intricate renderings and carefully crafted installation plans were created to secure the displays to each store’s awning. These plans accounted for inclement weather, each store’s unique exterior, and varying landlord requirements. As an added layer of complexity, many landlords required formal approval of the renderings to ensure the displays wouldn’t compromise the integrity of the building.
With clear complexities and customer and employee safety at stake, both The Imagine Shop and the retailer’s teams knew that installation at each store would need to be handled with an uncompromising level of care.
The Real Challenge: Safety, Structure, and Zero Margin for Error
When it came time to install each big and bold display, the most important factor at the top of everyone’s minds was safety — for shoppers and employees alike.
Each dimensional Dibond holiday gift box weighed hundreds of pounds and was constructed using 5 ft x 10 ft and 4 ft x 8 ft sheets. With materials that heavy, it was clear that each display would need to be supported by the pre-existing structure of the store awning, along with a custom-designed bracing system.
Once all plans were finalized and each display was produced, it was time to ship and install. For each of the 11 locations, 10 ft x 5 ft packages weighing up to 1,000 lbs were packaged, shipped, and intentionally unpacked to ensure all debris was cleared from the premises so as to not disrupt the shopping experience.
With displays installed early in the morning under the direct supervision of the store manager before each location opened for business, store operations remained 100% uninterrupted.
Happy Shoppers, Holiday Cheer, & a 6-8% Boost in Revenue
After nearly six months of dreaming, planning, producing, and installing, the outcome of this brand’s campaign was evident — and it created more than just holiday magic for shoppers.
Not only were the displays installed without interruption to store operations, but each display successfully withstood inclement weather of all kinds, including a severe windstorm in Utah.
The displays were seen far and wide, with some even visible from the freeway — such as the display at the Totem Lake, Washington location.
Undoubtedly drawing more shoppers into stores to check off gifts on their Christmas lists, the 11 locations reported an average increase in sales of 6-8% while the displays were in operation. The retailer’s team reported that the campaign made a direct impact on that revenue boost.
Ambitious and bold designs, complex engineering challenges, and active weather aside, Christmas magic was alive and well at the brand’s stores this past holiday season.
No Idea Too Bold, No Project Too Audacious
Complex timelines. Endless locations. Tight turnarounds. Zero margin for error. This is our comfort zone.
The Imagine Shop by SuperGraphics brings together a unified retail team with a combined 600 years of experience and over 50,000 square feet of production space — built to handle complex rollouts without breaking stride.
Whether you’re dreaming up a campaign that seems too ambitious to be possible, or you’re managing a high-volume graphics program and need a partner who truly understands retail, we’re ready to be your retail roll-out ride-or-die.
Get in touch with our retail experience consultants to explore solutions for your next project.
