The First Cognitive Dress

Millennials hold the strings for 43% of IT spending. How do you reach an audience that turns to pop culture to judge technology brands?

IBM partnered with fashion house Marchesa to create the world’s first “thinking” dress, using Watson technology.

As the dress was worn on the red carpet, Watson processed social-media conversations about it and changed the color of the dress according to emotions expressed by fans in real-time.

 
 


The Making of The First Cognitive Dress

 
 

The dress made its debut at the Met Gala – Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology

It garnered widespread attention, securing a place in fashion’s most prominent headlines and re-established Watson’s presence in pop culture.

 
 


Live from the Met Gala

 
 
 
Watson is taking what the fans are saying in text about the dress and it’s understanding the emotions underneath.
— Jeff Arn (IBM Watson)
 
 
 
 

Results:

It was the most successful activation in IBM’s history

712 million impressions earned in traditional media sources like Wired, Fast Company, E! News and Vogue

352 million earned social media impressions

117% was how much we exceeded Instagram brand metrics

IBM was the leader at the Met Gala:
75% share of social conversation over other brands
95% positive social sentiment

 
 
 
 
 

712 million impressions earned in traditional media sources like Wired, Fast Company, E! News and Vogue 

 
 

352 million earned social media impressions

 

The Cognitive Dress is now part of the permanent collection of the Henry Ford Museum of Innovation

 

I was the CD on the project (Cognitive Dress, Teaser, Film, Branded Content, Print Ad, Digital & Social) with the most amazing team. I was also responsible for the Pre-Met Gala launch and execution (Event, Press Kit with exclusive piece of the cognitive dress, Signage, Social).
Writer: Steph Cajucom, AD: Dennis Kung, ECDs: Vicki Azarian + George Tannenbaum.