FLUXe
Issue 22 | March 2012
Agency
Capital C
Creative Team
Creative Direction: Steve Di Lorenzo, David Horovitch ; Event Creative Direction: Mary Pallattella ; Art Direction/Design: Steve Di Lorenzo, Nick Cangialosi ; Copywriters: Sarah Jane Bowler, Steve Di Lorenzo, David Horovitch; Artist/Illustrators: Eduardo Recife, Nanami Cowdroy, Lorenzo Petrantoni, Alex Kurina, Eepmon, Eric Chan, Hugh Elliott, Janice Kun, Sectr, Christian Toth, Zena Holloway. Curated by Pixel, Steve Di Lorenzo;
Production Team
Event Producers: Mary Pallattella,Themmy Papas;
Other Credits
Technology: Rob King, Craig MacKenzie, Kenith Chau, Tao Zhang, Nelly Radfar; Social Media: Aubrey Podolsky, Marc Schwartz ; Account Managers: Jason West, Angela Lowe, Kim Sanderson ; Project Manager: Gillian Lai;
Date
October 1st 2011.
Background
Scotiabank has been a great supporter of the arts for quite some time, including the all night art event, Nuit Blanche.
The bank’s advertising platform was ‘You’re Richer Than You Think’ and the task was to bring that to life at the same time as reaffirming the perception of Scotiabank as synonymous with arts and culture around a local initiative called Arts for Children and Youth.
Idea
At the core of the idea was something just about everyone has experienced in their childhood, finger painting. But the agency wanted to give this oldest of art forms a modern twist. The installation they created, FLUXe, allowed people to express their creativity by engaging in a magical multi-user art experience. Children and adults alike were able to collaborate and create art simultaneously and to submit to a permanent gallery online.
For one night they were invited to use their touch-based mobile phones or tablets to finger paint onto a massive 100 ft digital canvas without having to download or install an app.
Nine famous artists with very different artistic styles were commissioned to create different brush patterns people could paint with. Each brush pattern was coded to move and react organically based on the user’s finger movements. Some brushes were even coded to move in mesmerizing 3D patterns.
Custom sounds triggered by users were also developed by a sound designer.
Once people were finished painting on the 100 ft digital canvas, they were given the opportunity to become a permanent part of the installation by sending their collaborative artwork directly to the Facebook gallery where they could tag themselves and share with their friends. Participants were also able to download a hi-resolution image to print or use as wallpaper.
Results
In one night, thousands of strangers and friends, children and adults shared in a unique public art-making experience. Over 700 pieces of collaborative user generated art were submitted to the Facebook gallery. 1,500 people liked the Facebook page, and in less than 2 weeks FLUXe reached 595,947 people on Facebook. To add to the buzz, various newspapers, blogs and local news channels picked up the FLUXe story.
When people liked the Facebook page it helped to support the fundraising efforts of Arts for Children and Youth (AFCY).
Video documentation on Youtube at: http://youtu.be/DD-pFCCbews?hd=1
Our Thoughts
Contagious is such a brilliant word to describe how the most engaging advertising ideas work in the digital age. Full credit to Paul Kemp-Robertson for seizing on it as the name for his magazine.
This is a classically contagious idea, experienced by maybe just two thousand at first-hand but by hundreds f thousands at second-hand, via social media and good old-fashioned newspaper reports.
It’s a lesson to every advertiser that every penny you spend on communications can bring you audiences disproportionately large to the size of your budget. Provided, that is, you have an idea that interests and involves them.