Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

At an exclusive preview last night, Ralph Lauren's Rugby brand revealed its new "Make Your Own" iPhone application. The app let's consumers create their own unique Rugby directly from their iPhone.

The user experience is quite slick and intuitive. First, you pick an avatar, which can be your own photo or a Rugby model. You can adjust the skintone and pick a new hairstyle by shaking phone. Next, you choose a short from the Rugby collection that they' like to customize. Drag and drop patches onto the shirt, add your name to the back, if you want, then rotate the model 360 degrees to "do a twirl" and check out the whole look. There are over 1 million potential unique styles you can make, pretty much ensuring that you'll have a one-of-a-kind shirt if you so desire.

The app then lets you name your style and create a crest by choosing a backdrop, inscription, and crown for your avatar. You can can submit your creation to their public gallery. If approved, your style will be posted for others to see and rate (you can do the same with theirs). You then have the option to buy your item, send it to a friend, post to Facebook, or just save it to your phone. Sticker shock? You can go back and edit as well. If you chose to buy it, your order is sent to their North Carolina-based fulfillment center then routed to a local store. A salesperson will call you within 72 hrs to make sure you reeeeeeally want that shirt with 50 ponies on it. If you do, you then give your credit card information and shipping address, etc.

In addition to the application, their will also be interactive store windows that let you do everything the app does just by touching the glass. RL actually launched these windows back in 2006 allowing consumers to shop 24/7. As David Lauren related, they were actually inspired by the computerized window in Minority Report. "We called Spielberg to find out how he did it," Lauren said. When the director said it was all movie magic, the RL team endeavored to make it reality. The interactive windows relaunch today in NYC and San Francisco Rugby Stores with the Make Your Own app, so you can create a shirt anytime, or just pull up your style for all passerby to see.

MYO joins Ralph Lauren's other iPhone app, which mimics all the functionality of the regular e-commerce website, plus a mobile-optimized site for non-iPhones.