Retail & POS
636 prints and 131 newsletter leads in a 2-week Pride activation for H&M
H&M activated the Chosen Family Pride Month campaign with a 2-week photo-booth installation in a Berlin store on the Kudamm. Within the run, the set-up generated 550 sessions, 636 prints and 131 GDPR-compliant newsletter leads. The lever was the full integration of the photo booth into the campaign aesthetic — hardware wrap in the campaign look, animated software buttons, a curated set and a photo email in the brand layout that carried the Chosen Family message beyond the store visit.
More than 200 B2B brands from across Europe trust UpReach — from agencies to enterprise corporations.
The initial situation
Pride Month campaigns in fashion retail are a sensitive field of activation: they have to carry the message in substance, without being seen as superficial marketing. With the Chosen Family campaign, H&M wanted to visibly support the LGBTQIA+ community and translate the message "family is the people who love you, no matter who you love" into an interactive experience.
The activation had a two-part requirement. First, the photo-booth mechanic had to carry the campaign message in substance — visitors should be able to photograph themselves alone, with friends, family or chosen family, and the mechanic must not implicitly exclude any constellation. Second, the visual set-up had to be fully integrated into the campaign aesthetic, not a generic photo booth with a campaign sticker.
The operational challenge: the store on the Kudamm is a high-traffic location with limited space. The photo booth had to be integrated into the existing store layout without blocking the customer flow — while at the same time creating enough visual attention to motivate visitors to take part.
The UpReach solution
In close coordination with the H&M marketing team, UpReach built a fully integrated campaign set-up. The hardware was wrapped in the campaign look of the Chosen Family activation — not a generic photo-booth appearance, but a visual element of the campaign itself. A specially designed set in the store rounded out the set-up and drew visitors' attention to the touchpoint.
The software interface was designed entirely in the campaign design: an animated video as a standby screen motivated interaction, animated buttons in the campaign CI guided people through the photo flow, and all overlays picked up the visual language of the campaign. The UI was configured so that photo constellations stayed open — visitors could use the set-up alone, with friends, family or chosen family, with the mechanic not implicitly favouring any constellation.
Image output ran in parallel across two channels: an instant print at the terminal as a physical take-home keepsake AND digital delivery by email. The photo email was designed in the H&M brand layout and carried the Chosen Family message beyond the store visit, into the participants' digital inbox.
Before the image output ran the GDPR-compliant data gate: email address, newsletter opt-in with timestamp, image-rights confirmation for reuse in H&M marketing.
Setup & Logistics
Lead time four weeks: two weeks for interface design and campaign integration (standby video, animated buttons, campaign overlays, photo-email template in the H&M brand layout), one week for the hardware wrap in the campaign look and set construction for the store integration, one week for logistics preparation and a pre-installation test.
Set-up by an UpReach technician before the store opened on the campaign start, including set construction, hardware installation, light calibration to the store's lighting situation and a test of the print and email output pipeline. Briefing of the store staff to support the activation.
During the 2-week run, the photo booth ran in kiosk mode with remote monitoring by UpReach. The cloud CMS delivered live data to the H&M marketing team: sessions, print volume, newsletter opt-in rate, geographical distribution of visitors (via the postcode field in the opt-in) and output-format distribution.
Results by the numbers
sessions
physical prints
GDPR-compliant newsletter leads
The print rate above 100% (636 prints from 550 sessions) shows that many group sessions ordered several prints per shot — typical of Chosen Family constellations, where each participant wanted their own physical keepsake. The print format worked as an emotional take-home for the Pride message.
The newsletter lead conversion was around 24% — a far higher figure than pure newsletter forms without an experience component. The mechanism: taking part in the photo booth created an emotional anchor for the brand, and the photo-email delivery was the natural reason to share data.
The geographical distribution of visitors also gave H&M insights into the regional reach of a single Berlin store — a data layer that classic out-of-home campaigns cannot access.
Key takeaways from this setup
Campaign integration beats a campaign sticker: the photo booth was not perceived as an external element, because it was fully integrated into the campaign aesthetic — hardware, software, set, photo email. A generic photo booth with a campaign sticker would have diluted the perception.
Print is a must for emotional campaigns: in emotional activations such as the Chosen Family campaign, the physical print is a central element. Digital delivery alone would have flattened the take-home experience. 636 prints from 550 sessions prove how strongly physical memories are in demand in emotional contexts.
Open mechanics for inclusive messages: in campaigns with an inclusive message, the mechanic must not implicitly favour or exclude any constellation. A UI that explicitly offers 'you alone, with friends, with family or chosen family' as equal options carries the message in substance — a UI that shows only 'with your family' as the default would contradict the campaign.
UpReach Components Used
Hardware
UpReach Compact (campaign-wrapped)
Software 01
AI background removal (GDPR-compliant, consent at the terminal)
Software 02
White-label UI in the campaign design, standby-video integration, animated buttons, GDPR data gate with newsletter opt-in, print and email output pipeline, UpReach KPI dashboard
Campaign integration for your retail location
UpReach builds fully integrated photo-booth activations for retail campaigns — hardware wrap, software CI, print and email pipeline from a single source.
