The Campaign

“Designing a Fashion Bag Collection Made with Cheap Pxmart Grocery Bags” Surveys revealed that in Taiwan nearly 60 percent of consumers 20-29 years old earned less than US$1,000 per month. Caught in the middle of a recession, they were struggling to get by, and they longed to live better lives. So we gave cheap, commonplace Pxmart plastic grocery bags a radical makeover, transforming them into a hand-crafted fashion handbag collection. In so doing, we offered young people a demonstration of how to creatively make life good, even when the times are hard.

Creative Execution

We crafted our fashion bag collection using ubiquitous, low-cost, strong and durable plastic Pxmart grocery bags as the ideal material. We established a workshop where ten professional fashion accessory designers gathered samples, developed designs, and cut out patterns. By snipping and reassembling used plastic Pxmart bags, sewing them together with zippers and other accessories, they crafted 8 varieties of handbags, in limited editions of 100 units each. Then, we sold them in a concept store and online, and released a video showing young people how to make the bags step-by-step.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

“The Pxmart Fashion Bag Collection turned saving money into youthful fashion” ? The hugely popular Pxmart Fashion Bag Collection was featured in Vogue magazine. ? Within 3 weeks, the Fashion Bag educational video achieved over 3.6 million views. ? Store members under 19 years of age increased by 11%. ? Store visitors under 19 increased by 31%, age 20-24 increased by 20%. ? Sales revenues grew by 20%, crossing the major threshold of 100 billion Taiwan dollars for the first time.

“A High-Visibility Contrast between Cheap and Chic” More than anything else, plastic shopping bags symbolize the Pxmart grocery store brand. We remodeled them as upscale, hand-crafted handbags, in 8 different designs: a Tote Bag, a Bucket Bag, a Clutch Bag, a Tassel Bag, a Braided Bag, and more. They embodied the spirit that saving money is really the height of fashion. But the campaign elements included more than just the fashion bags themselves. Targeting young people 20-29 years old, we leveraged a variety of approaches: mass media such as TVC/print/outdoor, a pop-up store, a glass display truck, online sales, and a series of online classroom videos, to engage young consumers, generating interaction and sharing.