Artifier
Bacardi - Bombay Sapphire
Issue 42 | March 2017
Agency
BBDO New York
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer, BBDO Worldwide David Lubars Chief Creative Officer, BBDO New York Greg Hahn Executive Creative Directors Danilo Boer Marcos Kotlhar Creative Director Danny Adrain Associate Creative Director Roberto Danino Senior Designer Bhanu Arbuaratna
Production Team
Agency Motion Designer Chris D’Andrea Director of Digital Innovation Joe Croson Interactive Producer Sho Matsuzaki Technical Director Konstantin Rozinov Developer Aaron Wyler Sound Engineer John Cabrera
Other Credits
Account Team Steven Panariello Alli Hunt Cameron Cullman Planner Alysha Lalji Composer Andrew Knox
Date
October 2016
Background
Since 2010, Bombay Sapphire and the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation provided emerging artists with an international platform to showcase their work. Their Artisan Series, aimed to discover the next big names in the visual arts. Thousands of emerging artists submitted artwork online for a chance to have it shown at Art Basel in Miami. Bombay Sapphire wanted to raise awareness for Artisan Series and the competition.
Idea
The creative solution started with a simple thought: art makes the world more beautiful, so what if art could be brought to one of the ugliest places on Earth, the Internet? The result was Artifier, a Google Chrome extension that replaced banner ads with all the beautiful artwork that was submitted to Artisan Series. People could discover new artists as they browsed their favourite websites. By hovering over a banner, they could learn more about the artist and the piece and vote for their favourites.
Results
The internet was turned into an endless art gallery and people loved it. Thousands of people installed the extension on their Chrome browser and Artisan Series website traffic increased by 155%. Artifier transformed 3.8 million banners a month, equivalent to a media value of $1 million a year, all of which cost Bombay Sapphire $0.
Our Thoughts
Using ads people like to replace ads people don’t – there has to be a message here!
It’s the whole conundrum of modern advertising. If you are crass, tawdry or irrelevant then people simply don’t notice you. On the other hand, be respectful, be delightful and be useful and suddenly they do take you into account. People don’t hate advertising per se, only bad advertising. That’s why I so love this idea. It defines the problem and the solution for marketers everywhere.