Everyone wants to be heard. With all of the information and marketing content inundating us each and every second of our lives, it has never been more difficult to break through the noise and get attention, and even more to convince the customers with your message, because we’ve learned to tune out the noise. That is, unless something different, unique, emotional, and surprising is done.
Art, in all of its forms, can be a powerful engagement tool. It evokes emotion, inspires creativity and often educates observers in one way or another. Interaction between the artwork/the artist and the viewer means communication.
One of the best methods to capture and sustain the attention of the audience is by blending marketing and art, and experiential marketers know this. Many people love art installations and in the era of social media, they become a point of attraction not only for real visitors, but also for online audiences, and start floating all over the internet. Thus, cleverly incorporated art-based engagements into marketing events become important, to attract visitors and accelerate the reach of marketing campaign through social media. It can also give engagement as well as conversion. This relatively old trend is still going pretty strong.
Moreover, art carries a strong and positive message which in certain cases can strengthen the marketing message and make it more heard. Especially if the message is insightfully connected to cultural and social circumstances and therefore content is most important.
There are different layers of information in every artwork, like little messages on different levels, for example there can be an intellectual message, the unique style or technique is also a message, but the most important one, the one which captures the widest audience is the emotional message.
At Monartus, we especially love marketing projects with a touch of art. Here’s a look at our three art-driven experiential marketing projects we worked on for our client Europa Shopping Centre in Vilnius.
We are the Kings of Rubbish
“We are the Kings of Rubbish” – this is what Algis Krisciunas, a Lithuanian visual artist, called his latest art installation, which also includes the world-famous quote “How dare you” by the environmental activist Greta Thunberg. The installation was a part of a “Book Fair” event at Europa Shopping Centre in Vilnius held in November 2019. According to the artist, the art installation which consists of two parts – a huge painting of a child reading a book with a cloak made from various pieces of rubbish collected from the garbage bins of the shopping centre – is designed to draw the public’s attention to the topics of sustainability, to encourage responsible consumption, and to remind the society to take care not only of themselves but also of the environment.
“Today, we are comprehensively educating ourselves, beautifying our inner world, but we often forget and even completely abandon the environment in which we live. It seems that sometimes we excessively use the conveniences of the world without caring at all about what is left after us and where it will go. The child depicted in the installation is a reflection of our society – educated but careless, sitting on a “pile of knowledge”, but not noticing that the mantle of a personal greatness is gradually turning into rubbish”, the artist said.
The artistic installation highlighted the Book Fair theme at Europa Shopping Centre. Additionally, to encourage the public to consume responsibly, book presentation and talk events, presenting Bea Johnson’s global bestseller “Zero Waste Home” and Luca Mercalli’s children’s book “What a Heat!”, were held during the fair.
Reading is a Timeless Fashion
“Reading is a timeless fashion,” was the message encoded by the street artist Zygimantas Amelynas in his latest work of modern art. The art installation created out of the books became the main highlight of the “Book Fair” event held in Europa Shopping Centre in Vilnius, in April, 2019.
By creating this installation, the artist sought to engage people, and grab their attention, but at the same time not bother them by urging to explore something really complex. He chose Mona Lisa for his interpretation because it is one of the most famous works of art, easily recognisable, and therefore immediately catches the eyes of passers-by. It’s a work that doesn’t need to be explained – you can just look at it anew.
“For me, this work is like my own play with well-known details, I wanted to interpret Mona Lisa in a way that would seem unexpected to the audience. Unlike the original, my artwork depicts Mona Lisa with a book in her hands. The title of the book – Fashion History – can be understood as a message for viewers: reading is a timeless fashion.” – says the artist.
The open classic and contemporary books, which became the backdrop of the Mona Lisa’s portrait, tell us about the unexpected and rich intertwining of different themes and periods, which can be best revealed in the world of books.
A Three-Dimensional Christmas Tree out of Gift Boxes
Year after year shopping malls try to surprise us with unconventional ideas to keep their customers’ attention and to attract new customers. Therefore, we offered our client Europa Shopping Centre to surprise its visitors with a truly unique Christmas Tree, produced in collaboration with Jolita Vaitkute, a well-known young generation Lithuanian artist, who creates original art installations out of offbeat materials.
The artist devoted a considerable amount of time to reflect on how to create the Christmas atmosphere without real spruce. She was looking for an idea that would be as nature friendly as possible because all her work basically relies on this principle. Finally, the artist decided to create a unique three-dimensional Christmas Tree installation out of traditional gift boxes, which were packaged using easily recyclable gift wrap.
Almost 100 hours of work – that was the time required to implement the idea of the art installation. A large number of assistants who spent a few days in the shopping centre, sometimes working until dawn, contributed to the idea. The work required great accuracy because it was necessary to think about every tiny detail – from how to cut the gift wrap correctly, to the final arrangement of the gift boxes.
No doubt the unconventional Christmas Tree, which could be viewed from just one perspective, caught the eye of most visitors of the shopping centre. The art installation earned great media attention, as a result, the shopping centre gained lots of free publicity and achieved the PR goals of not only building an image of an exclusive shopping centre but also attracting more buyers.
