Earlier this year, the marketers at Tommy Hilfiger created their own spin on a pop-up store: They invited 2,000 consumers to a fashion show on Venice Beach, Los Angeles, and let them instantly purchase any item that caught their eye as its models traversed the catwalk.
The immediate-gratification program was analog to its core. And its success relied on a new kind of technology. More specifically, the conduit for this fusion of stylish couture and real-time commerce was Snap:Shop, a mobile app that broadcast live, three-dimensional images of the brand's runway show.
Based on that technology, users who photographed a...