YouTube Shorts Remake the Runway

YouTube had recently introduced their new Shorts feature to compete with TikTok, Snap, and Instagram Reels. Already having a video-native audience, certain barriers to adoption were easy to overcome, but YouTube still needed to win over Gen Z from an emotional standpoint. So the YouTube Creative Studio came to my team at R/GA with the task of making YouTube Shorts appear fun and cool. To add an anchor of substance, the idea needed to center around users upcycling clothing.

The R/GA team created Remake the Runway, a multi-faceted campaign highlighting innovative creators in the world of upcycled fashion. Launching during New York Fashion Week, the campaign would feature storefront takeovers, social and digital ads, and a microsite to serve as the hub for the campaign. We wanted to pull people into the excitement and creativity happening all over YouTube Shorts.

Leading a team that included an experience designer, visual creative director, visual designer, and internal technology team, we had to move quickly to ideate, design, and build a microsite experience that would work well within the larger campaign to achieve YouTube’s goals of driving awareness and engagement. Over the course of five weeks, we sprinted toward a fully-designed site experience:

• Synthesizing the client ask and establishing a set of site requirements and experience principles
• Structuring an information hierarchy, sitemap, and wireframes for three site concept options
• Designing a functional, motion prototype of the full visual site experience across desktop and mobile

The designs and prototypes we created were spot-on in conveying the fun and cool aspects of YouTube Shorts, while also giving users a meaningful way to consume the upcycled fashion content and dive deeper in the YouTube Shorts platform. As it turned out, business strategy decisions did not work out in our favor, and the site was shelved before development and launch because of client budgetary concerns. But the client was thrilled with our work nonetheless, so this one was a bittersweet conclusion.