Bombay Sapphire sparks creativity with crowdsourced art installation

Dive Brief:

• Bacardi-owned gin brand Bombay Sapphire opened a public art installation at an outdoor mall in Los Angeles that aims to crowdsource people’s creativity. The #FindYourCanvas installation consists of a blank canvas that gets painted in real time by robot arms controlled by visitors of a branded website, per an announcement.
• Visitors to the site must affirm they’re 21 or older before they can select a paint color and position on the canvas, and then watch as the robot arms add their contribution to the artwork. The project started on Aug. 29 and runs through Sept. 1 at ROW DTLA near LA’s Arts District.
• The completed artwork will be displayed at The Other Art Fair LA on Sept. 5-8. People who contributed to the artwork will be credited on a digital screen next to the painting. Bombay Sapphire will host art workshops at the fair and at its sister event, the The Other Art Fair New York on Nov. 7-10. The gin brand also will offer free, three-month subscriptions to classes from online learning platform Skillshare. Ad agency BBDO New York developed the campaign for Bombay Sapphire, Adweek reported.

Dive Insight:

As a new sponsor of The Other Art Fair, which aims to help emerging artists connect with art buyers, Bombay Sapphire seeks to engage consumers with an original experience that urges creative self-expression. The gin brand’s previous art-related programs include last year’s “Art in Progress” installation in New York that transformed unsightly construction-site barriers into professionally created artworks.

With the #FindYourCanvas effort, Bombay Sapphire aims to broaden participation in the arts, an initiative borne out of recent market research. As part of its partnership with The Other Art Fair, the brand surveyed more than 11,000 people about their creative abilities and barriers they face. Ninety percent of respondents expressed a desire to spend more time pursing artistic activities, while 96% said they would take classes to learn new creative skills if the cost weren’t prohibitive.

Bombay Sapphire’s campaign is part of a broader trend of incorporating user-generated content into experiential marketing strategies aimed at young adults who are typically hard to reach through traditional media like TV and print. Experiential marketing works by forming memorable, emotional connections between brands and consumers to foster loyalty and improve customer lifetime value. The strategy has become especially popular among spirits brands that have sought to engage consumers with original and entertaining experiences they can share on social media. Pernod Ricard’s Kahlúa brand in July created a pop-up exhibition of Instagram posts that received zero likes. Cointreau, the orange liqueur made by Remy Cointreau, partnered with woman-first social networking app Bumble to host Margarita Monday events in select cities.

Bombay Sapphire is combining two recent trends in marketing: crowdsourcing and art-related marketing. KFC in March launched the KFC Innovations Lab to turn new “ground-breaking ideas into a reality” and crowdfunding support for the ideas. Burger King Spain last year let Instagram users build their own hamburger through polls on “Stories” to receive a coupon for a free, customized Whopper. As for art-related marketing, Marriott in December partnered with Pepsi’s bottled water brand Lifewtr to create customized augmented reality art displays for hotel guests.