Branded installations work!

August 20, 2010 //
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For brands, investing in art and culture can go much further than simply being ‘a good thing to do’.  Cultural Branding carries with it the power and potential to engage consumers on a much deeper level, on a far larger scale.

Advertising can be art, and art can advertising.  But for us, we think it goes further than that – engaging with culture can benefit brand, reputation, staff, environment and community, not to mention it’s the leisure pursuit of choice for millions of people around the globe.

The World Cup attracted a wealth of visitors to South Africa this summer – and brands created some remarkable installations to capture imaginations.

Coca-cola played on the recent Crate Man craze sweeping Australia, creating their own ‘CrateFan’ – in Coca-cola red of course – on the Victoria and Albert Waterfront in Cape Town.  Meanwhile in Johannesburg, Nike created the 20-meter-high ‘Ball Man’ using 5,500 Brazilian Skill Balls in the Carlton Mall Atrium.  AND the footballs will be donated to the community when the exhibition closes.

No matter if you claim to be more Caravaggio than CrateMan, or more Nash than Nike, art can function effectively in many settings.  At Arts & Business we can help your brand navigate the cultural landscape – have a look here to see how.

Rose Enright

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Categories contemporary art, cultural branding, culture, innovation, pop-up

Create or Else

August 17, 2010 //
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We’ve written quite a bit in the past few months on how brands are moving towards creating their own platforms for exhibiting or curating creative content – it marks an interesting shift in how the physical gallery is moving from room to screen.  Importantly however, cultural organisations have not been left out in the cold – many of the big players investing in mobile technology to open up their collections to a wider audience (Museo Nacional del Prado and Google) and/or harnessing this same technology to enhance the physical experience of the gallery with user-designed, GPS-guided  tours of the collections in ‘real life’ (AMNH Explorer App).

Here’s another brand carving out a digital gallery of creative types – Ogilvy and ‘Create or Else’.  Certainly the nicest threat I’ve heard in recent weeks, perhaps apart from ‘you must eat cake on Wednesday’ (a rule which should be more rigorously adhered to in my mind).

Where was I… so, Create or Else is essentially Ogilvy’s YouTube channel, and they are inviting creatives to share work and ideas which inspire.  Curators from around the world will build a changing line-up of video content on a rotating basis, with ‘shorts’ focusing on a range of subjects, from science, through to art, music and just-plain-interesting  types.  It’s in its early stages in terms of content, but there are some pretty slick and extremely interesting shorts up already, featuring artists such as Nathan Sawaya (LEGO sculptor) and Roderick Angle (photographer).

Naturally, for a forward-thinking brand there is full integration and presence across social media platforms (go Facebook, go Twitter), and sharing functionality thanks to the choice of YouTube as a platform.  Create or Else is certainly worth a bookmark.

Rose Enright

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Categories cultural branding, culture, digital, mobile technology, music

Trump Tartan

August 13, 2010 //
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Here at Arts & Business we were recently joined by Kevin Cameron – one of the winners of the Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance Art of Nurture 2010 prize – for a week’s work placement, looking at researching interesting cultural partnerships… much like we write about here on Cultural Branding.  The Art of Nurture prize was developed by Arts & Business for Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance five years ago, and we continue to with the bank to develop the prize today.

Studying at Robert Gordon University’s Gray’s School of Art, Kevin introduced us to an interesting outreach project Trump International – Scotland is embarking on in and around Aberdeen.

Previous Gray’s School of Art creations modelled outside Menie House

Having met both support and resistance for the new Trump golf development north of Aberdeen, the global brand has sought to engage in a meaningful way with the local community, schools and industry alike.  Students at Gray’s School of Art have been invited to come up with initial designs for a corporate tartan for Trump International – Scotland.  The final design, intended to complement the Trump family tartan (Macleod) will be produced using local production manufacturers and mills – ensuring production is kept within the region to the benefit of both the community and the craft industry in the region, best known at present as the oil capital of Europe.  The final designs will be used around the new resort north of Aberdeen on Scotland’s north-east coast, and could extend to use in golf wear and resort merchandise, becoming a key part of the brand identity of the resort.

Sarah Malone, Executive Vice-President of Trump International – Scotland says of the initiative;

“Gray’s School of Art’s particular emphasis on the design and application of tartan within their fashion and textiles department prompted this partnership. Trump International – Scotland will commission a Trump corporate tartan in the future and we are keen to engage up and coming designers working in the North-east in this process.”

We’re looking forward to seeing how the relationship develops between Trump International – Scotland and Gray’s School of Art – and just remember when Kevin becomes famous you saw him here first!

Rose Enright

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Categories culture
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