H&M’s media agency Initiative is getting literal for the campaign promoting the grand opening of its freshly redesigned Toronto flagship store at the CF Eaton Centre, placing a giant shopping bag in downtown Toronto. 

The agency has taken over the Church and Bloor intersection and placed a giant (12-feet high, 24-feet wide) H&M shopping bag carved out of wood on the parking lot that sits on the south west corner. That domination was placed in partnership with Cieslok Media. 

The giant installation is aimed at drawing the attention of commuters passing through the Yonge and Bloor intersection, says Razvan Luca, media planning manager, Initiative.

The renovated Canadian flagship store at Yonge & Dundas will be one of the top 10 largest H&M stores globally. The new store occupies over 57,000 square feet and now includes the H&M Home collection, only the second store in Canada (the other is in Edmonton), to have the products.

Targeting both fashion lovers and home décor enthusiasts, the campaign started with a 12-page catalogue of home products in the March issue of Canadian House and Home. That was followed by the OOH ads, which in addition to the Church and Bloor activation also include all east-facing TSAs between Bay and Yonge on Queen, College and Dundas. Luca says his team refers to that buy as “all roads lead to H&M.”

The campaign also includes radio ads running on stations like CHUM, Z1035 and Kiss 99.9 and digital ads on the websites for Chatelaine, HGTV, Harper’s Bazaar, Flare and Elle Canada. All H&M creative for the brand is done by its global AOR, Tag Worldwide.

Being one of the company’s top 10 stores worldwide, the relaunch campaign is larger in scale than a typical H&M media buy, says Luca. The new store opens on Thursday morning.