Why is this work relevant for Media?

Gucci Art Wall in Taipei has found and turned the deserted bare wall which sit in the historical community-Yong Kang Street into a brand new advertising location and bestowing deep cultural bound by invited the national treasure, a master of hand painting for movie billboards to complete the art work. The combination of strategically selected location created abundant earned media on digital and social.

Background

Gucci Art Wall is a global project, rolling out in 7 cities around the world. Gucci selects art works to be replicated by hand-painting in different cities. Client briefed in 2017 Sep, the mission is to find an outdoor wall for hand-painting , no canvas or printing can be accepted. It turns out very tough to search for such location as most of the buildings in commercial area are built without plain and concrete walls. Aside from this situation, the team observed that the project should be more than just finding a wall, all the brand needs is not only awareness, instead, what do the consumer "aware" and perceive about the brand is the key to stand out among competitors.

Describe the creative idea/insights (30% of vote)

Luxury brands dedicated to approach the millennial in Taiwan market, Gucci also has the same direction. We deep-dive further to explore this group of consumers, they're more closer to hipsters, who value more about personal style, attitude and opinion; they're aware of social issues, love to immerse in stories more than superficial beauties, they highly treasure local recognition and cultural heritage whereas they feel meaningful, a sharing on social is the way they express and create their own characters. Therefore a localized story telling is the key to get into their hearts. In addition to millennial hipsters, foreign tourist is another important target; holiday mood always encourages an indulgent luxurious shopping plus social sharing, therefore we need to attract millennial hipsters and tourists by this art wall project, the two element we can decide: the location and the painter, and both of these element should own remarkable locality.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The target audience:millennial hipsters and tourists need good stories to drive sharing on social. Therefore the project needs to find a wall close to the life of millennials where they seek for the "subtle happiness"(such as gourmet hunting); a community represents the heritage of Taipei that attracts tourist. By mapping all popular spots in Taipei city, the location is settled in Young Kang Street where artists used to gather around and the famous Xiao Long Bao restaurant-Din Tai Fung was born.To seek more cultural linkage, we invite Mr. Jen-fa, Yen as the painter to complete te worlk. Mr. Yen is the mater of hand-painting movie billboards who has worked half century for an historical cinema in south Taiwan, this barely surviving art carries special memory of the public. The project is thus bestowed with great cultural meaning to tell a good story.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Young Kang Street is a residential area for scholars and mid to upper level citizens; a very conservative but wealthy community that this commercial area is prosperous developed with a special hint of serenity; however, commercial advertisement has never entered this area, especially for such a large scale wall painting. It’s challenging to negotiate with the sensitive community; on the other hand, the Municipal regulation set for developing a new advertising space and application procedure are very strict and time consuming. All these barriers postponed the progress of this project to nearly a year to accomplish. Inviting Mr. Yen to paint the wall is a new challenge for the master as well. This is the first time for him to send through colorproof to Italy and to mount up five floors high on scaffolds to work but also the first time, this local art encounters global luxury brand.

List the results (30% of vote)

After launch for the first two weeks, without media investment Erned media: -53 media online reports; -70 media social posts -200 and more organic posts on IG. Dated till late January 2019 total earned - 621+ FB+IG posts -Organic online media reports over 100. Gucci Taiwan revenue growth 40% vs. total luxury category growth 4.1% in 2018 Alex Merry, the artist of the artwork selected for Taipei art wall, was greatly surprised by a work so much well done, and expressed her appreciation and honor to have Mr. Yen to hand-painting her artwork. Gucci headquarter was very satisfies, the result is beyond expectation. GUCCI acquired the connection to local arts, which is not a just awareness, it walks into the heart of consumers.

Please tell us about the social behaviour and/or cultural insights that inspired your campaign

The social behaviour of the millennial gives the signal of the importance of cultural story-telling, especially from deep-diving observation from consumer trend and social discussion, they are shouting out that fancy places for photo shootings are no longer attractive, they need more in-depth meaning, a localized story to make them proud of. Gucci, an Italian brand, almost reach to a century old, owns rich cultural and heritage brand equity back in its hometown, however, for the consumers in Taiwan, those background feels distant, and barely relevant to local life. Therefore, we realize that a combination of locality has the huge chance to create organic buzz on social and encourage consumers to build up association of local art to the brand, the project may shorten the distance between consumers and the brand, showing the brand highly value local culture and honors the local art which may be long forgotten.