Chanel Retail Photography Across Toronto & Vancouver Airports

About the Event

Chanel’s retail presence at two of Canada’s major international airports required coordinated professional photography to document visual merchandising, product displays, and seasonal campaign installations before an upcoming campaign change.

The assignment covered Toronto Pearson International Airport and Vancouver International Airport, two locations separated by thousands of kilometers. With the existing campaign scheduled to change on August 18, the photography needed to capture the current retail presentation across multiple stores within a limited timeframe.

Shootday coordinated two local photographers, one in each city, to document Chanel’s counters, fixtures, visual merchandising, and Summer Animation installations while maintaining a consistent photographic approach across both airports.

The project highlighted the importance of multi-location retail photography for global brands that need reliable visual documentation of their campaigns across geographically dispersed locations.

Brand: Chanel
Locations: Toronto Pearson International Airport & Vancouver International Airport, Canada
Shoot Dates: August 10 and August 17
Coverage: 2.5 hours per location
Service: Retail & Visual Merchandising Photography
Crew: 2 Photographers, 1 per location
Coverage Areas: 3 retail areas in Toronto and 2 shops in Vancouver

The Challenge

The objective was to capture consistent, high-quality photography of Chanel’s existing retail merchandising and seasonal campaign installations across two major Canadian airports before the scheduled campaign change on August 18.

Unlike traditional event photography, retail visual merchandising documentation requires careful attention to brand presentation, fixture details, product placement, and the overall appearance of each retail space.

The geographic separation between Toronto and Vancouver added another layer of complexity. Each location had different store layouts, coverage requirements, and access restrictions, yet the final photography needed to provide a cohesive visual record of Chanel’s campaign execution.

Key objectives included:

• Coordinating professional photography across Toronto and Vancouver, two cities on opposite sides of Canada.
• Capturing Chanel’s visual merchandising and campaign installations before the August 18 changeover.
• Documenting three retail areas at Toronto Pearson Airport and two shops at Vancouver International Airport.
• Photographing Chanel counters, fixtures, product displays, and overall retail presentation.
• Highlighting the Summer Animation campaign installations at each accessible location.
• Maintaining consistent image quality, framing, and visual standards across both airports.
• Working efficiently within the 2.5-hour photography window assigned to each location.
• Adapting to airport-specific access requirements, including the exclusion of SAB from Vancouver coverage.

The central challenge was delivering consistent brand documentation across multiple retail environments, while ensuring that the unique details of each location were captured accurately.

Shootday’s Approach

Shootday divided responsibilities across a specialized four-person production team, allowing session recording, promotional vShootday organized the assignment around local production teams, standardized photography requirements, and location-specific coverage plans.

By assigning a dedicated photographer to each airport, the project could be completed without requiring a single crew to travel across Canada. Both photographers worked from the same core visual objectives, allowing the resulting imagery to follow a consistent photographic direction.

Toronto – Pearson International Airport

The Toronto assignment focused on documenting Chanel’s retail presence across three designated coverage areas: SAB, CATE, and CATI.

• Retail & Counter Photography
  • Captured Chanel counters within each of the three retail areas.
  • Documented fixtures, display structures, and overall merchandising arrangements.
  • Focused on clean, professional compositions that accurately represented each retail environment.
• Visual Merchandising & Campaign Coverage
  • Photographed the existing Chanel visual merchandising across all three shops.
  • Documented Summer Animation installations, including seasonal display elements and product arrangements.
  • Captured both wider views of the retail spaces and closer images of individual fixtures and displays.
  • Prioritized imagery that clearly communicated how the campaign was presented at each location.

Vancouver – Vancouver International Airport

At Vancouver International Airport, a second photographer followed the same core photography requirements while adapting to the location’s specific access arrangements.

Coverage included Shop 1 and Shop 2, with particular attention to the Summer Animation setup in the second shop.

• Retail Display Photography
  • Captured Chanel counters, fixtures, and visual merchandising across both accessible shops.
  • Documented product displays and the overall appearance of each retail environment.
  • Maintained a clean, consistent photographic style aligned with the Toronto assignment.
• Seasonal Campaign Documentation
  • Focused on the Summer Animation installation and related visual merchandising.
  • Captured detailed photographs of seasonal displays and fixture arrangements.
  • Used wide and close-up perspectives to document both the complete retail presentation and its individual elements.
• Location-Specific Coordination
  • Adjusted the coverage plan to account for airport access limitations.
  • Excluded the SAB area, where photography access could not be arranged.
  • Prioritized the two accessible shops to make the most of the scheduled coverage window.

Multi-Location Retail Photography Coordination

The defining element of Shootday’s approach was the ability to coordinate retail photography across two distant cities while maintaining one consistent visual brief.

• Assigned one local photographer in Toronto and one in Vancouver.
• Established shared photography priorities covering counters, fixtures, merchandising, and campaign installations.
• Adapted each shoot to the specific store layouts and access requirements.
• Planned coverage around the campaign changeover deadline.
• Maintained a consistent focus on clean compositions, detailed product imagery, and accurate retail presentation.

This structure allowed the brand’s retail environments to be documented using the same visual standards, despite differences in geography and individual store configurations.

The Outcome

A coordinated multi-city retail photography assignment designed to document Chanel’s visual merchandising and Summer Animation campaign installations across Toronto and Vancouver.

The coverage encompassed five designated retail spaces across two international airports, with photography focused on Chanel counters, fixtures, product displays, seasonal installations, and overall store presentation.

The resulting visual documentation was intended to provide a consistent record of how the campaign appeared across different retail environments before the August 18 changeover.

The multi-location production approach offered several important advantages:

• Consistent brand documentation: Both photographers followed the same core requirements, supporting visual consistency across locations.
• Geographic flexibility: Local photographers enabled coverage in Toronto and Vancouver without the logistical burden of moving one crew between cities.
• Efficient execution: Each location had a dedicated 2.5-hour coverage window focused on its specific retail areas.
• Location-specific adaptability: Coverage plans accounted for different shop configurations and access restrictions.
• Campaign visibility: Photography provided a visual record of seasonal merchandising across multiple retail touchpoints.

Most importantly, the project demonstrated how Shootday can support global retail brands with coordinated photography across multiple cities, making it easier to document campaign execution consistently across geographically dispersed locations.

Visuals

Closing Note

At Shootday, we help global retail and luxury brands maintain consistent visual documentation across multiple stores, cities, and countries.

From visual merchandising audits and seasonal campaign photography to product launches and retail activations, our network of professional photographers enables brands to capture their retail presence without coordinating separate production providers in every location.

Whether photographing Chanel displays across Toronto and Vancouver airports or managing larger multi-location retail projects, Shootday provides a scalable approach to professional photography built around consistent quality, efficient coordination, and reliable local coverage.