2021 Winner
BronzeBest in Entertainment
McCord Museum
"The Polaroid Project"
Jungle Media
"The Polaroid Project"
Jungle Media
McCord Museum celebrates historical and present day life in Montreal. Contemporary and interactive, the Museum’s mission is to take its exhibitions beyond the confines of its museum walls: into the streets, educational institutions, and unusual/unexpected places.
During spring 2019, McCord launched the Polaroid exhibition, exclusively in Canada. A unique opportunity to discover the extraordinary artistic and scientific creativity of photography. At the intersection of art and technology, the exhibition presented original works by some of the most famous international artists of the 20th century, including none other than Andy Warhol.
In order to drive visits to the exhibition, and bring the mission, “Museum outside the museum walls”, to life, the agency relied on an unusual format to captivate the target audience, and stand out amongst the competitive clutter of exhibitions with 3x the media budget (such as MBAM with Thierry Mugler).
The idea was to re-create the unveiling effect of a Polaroid photo, directly in the hands of Montrealers. To do this, they used leuco dye technology on coffee sleeves to recreate the same gradual developing effect. As the hot coffee came into contact with the sleeve, famous Polaroids from the exhibition were revealed, inviting the public to come and see the entire exhibition at the McCord Museum.
While they had 2 distinct demographic targets with distinct media habits, Montrealers 18-24 and 45+, they needed to find a common touch point to reach them and bring their Polaroid concept to life.
The common point? Coffee! These 2 targets drink more than 10 coffees weekly and visit a café-bistro an average of 2 to 3 times a week. Coffee shops were the perfect venue, where no matter what the age group, design and culture are always present. In 2019, they can even say that coffee was becoming
an art in itself.
They distributed over 175,000 coffee sleeves to preferred coffee shop locations to promote the exhibition. But the real challenge was recreating the effect of a true Polaroid during its unveiling process. The solution was to use recyclable sleeves with two layers; 1) An application of leuco dye technology to print an interactive image, and then 2) A second layer of leuco dye that became transparent when exposed to coffee heat. The print then became a ‘negative’ by slowly changing from grey to a full color photograph, bringing the exhibit’s artwork to life right in front of Montrealers’ eyes (and in their hands).
To ensure attendance for the exhibit, this unique media format was also leveraged as a coupon, offering an additional discount with the presentation of a coffee sleeve upon entry.
They meticulously selected 35 cafés, strategically positioned in locations highly frequented by their targets. To reach the 18-24 year olds, art, photography and culture enthusiasts, they targeted coffee stands near the art pavilions of universities and colleges. To reach the 45+, educated and affluent, they targeted cafés near office towers, always with an emphasis near the McCord Museum, where there is a higher concentration of clients with a cultural profile.
While Polaroid photography may not seem impressive in this current digital age, the ability to produce photos within seconds of capturing a shot marked a major turning point in the consumer camera industry in the 1970s.
Their mission with this campaign was to celebrate this turning point in the world of photography and bring its magic back to life, without losing its essence. While simple in execution, it would not have been acceptable to simply recreate the effect of a Polaroid directly on a mobile device. In order to bring the nostalgia of the Polaroid photo to life and thus engage with the audience, the photo unveiling experience had to be impeccably authentic.
Knowing that the leuco dye technology could recreate the authentic effect they were looking for, they still needed to find the ideal vehicle to reach pop culture enthusiasts and activate the technology that would reveal the Polaroid.
This was an iconic campaign for McCord Museum. With this central tactic in the media mix, they generated awareness and understanding in the blink of an eye, which helped to drive 90,565 seduced consumers through the Museum's doors during the exhibition, exceeding attendance
objectives by +29%.
The Polaroid sleeves helped bring the mission, Museum outside its own walls, back to life. The campaign charmed consumers to such an extent that they felt the need to share their positive reviews. The Director of Communications at the University of Montreal said, “A colleague went to get coffee this afternoon and came back with a very cool McCord Museum sleeve that conjures up an image on contact with the hot beverage. I think it's really interesting as a communication vehicle.” A student at UQAM said that “it's very original how the coffee sleeves reflect the exhibition,” while a student at McGill said that “it's brilliant how the sleeve uses polaroid technology.”
During spring 2019, McCord launched the Polaroid exhibition, exclusively in Canada. A unique opportunity to discover the extraordinary artistic and scientific creativity of photography. At the intersection of art and technology, the exhibition presented original works by some of the most famous international artists of the 20th century, including none other than Andy Warhol.
In order to drive visits to the exhibition, and bring the mission, “Museum outside the museum walls”, to life, the agency relied on an unusual format to captivate the target audience, and stand out amongst the competitive clutter of exhibitions with 3x the media budget (such as MBAM with Thierry Mugler).
The idea was to re-create the unveiling effect of a Polaroid photo, directly in the hands of Montrealers. To do this, they used leuco dye technology on coffee sleeves to recreate the same gradual developing effect. As the hot coffee came into contact with the sleeve, famous Polaroids from the exhibition were revealed, inviting the public to come and see the entire exhibition at the McCord Museum.
While they had 2 distinct demographic targets with distinct media habits, Montrealers 18-24 and 45+, they needed to find a common touch point to reach them and bring their Polaroid concept to life.
The common point? Coffee! These 2 targets drink more than 10 coffees weekly and visit a café-bistro an average of 2 to 3 times a week. Coffee shops were the perfect venue, where no matter what the age group, design and culture are always present. In 2019, they can even say that coffee was becoming
an art in itself.
They distributed over 175,000 coffee sleeves to preferred coffee shop locations to promote the exhibition. But the real challenge was recreating the effect of a true Polaroid during its unveiling process. The solution was to use recyclable sleeves with two layers; 1) An application of leuco dye technology to print an interactive image, and then 2) A second layer of leuco dye that became transparent when exposed to coffee heat. The print then became a ‘negative’ by slowly changing from grey to a full color photograph, bringing the exhibit’s artwork to life right in front of Montrealers’ eyes (and in their hands).
To ensure attendance for the exhibit, this unique media format was also leveraged as a coupon, offering an additional discount with the presentation of a coffee sleeve upon entry.
They meticulously selected 35 cafés, strategically positioned in locations highly frequented by their targets. To reach the 18-24 year olds, art, photography and culture enthusiasts, they targeted coffee stands near the art pavilions of universities and colleges. To reach the 45+, educated and affluent, they targeted cafés near office towers, always with an emphasis near the McCord Museum, where there is a higher concentration of clients with a cultural profile.
While Polaroid photography may not seem impressive in this current digital age, the ability to produce photos within seconds of capturing a shot marked a major turning point in the consumer camera industry in the 1970s.
Their mission with this campaign was to celebrate this turning point in the world of photography and bring its magic back to life, without losing its essence. While simple in execution, it would not have been acceptable to simply recreate the effect of a Polaroid directly on a mobile device. In order to bring the nostalgia of the Polaroid photo to life and thus engage with the audience, the photo unveiling experience had to be impeccably authentic.
Knowing that the leuco dye technology could recreate the authentic effect they were looking for, they still needed to find the ideal vehicle to reach pop culture enthusiasts and activate the technology that would reveal the Polaroid.
This was an iconic campaign for McCord Museum. With this central tactic in the media mix, they generated awareness and understanding in the blink of an eye, which helped to drive 90,565 seduced consumers through the Museum's doors during the exhibition, exceeding attendance
objectives by +29%.
The Polaroid sleeves helped bring the mission, Museum outside its own walls, back to life. The campaign charmed consumers to such an extent that they felt the need to share their positive reviews. The Director of Communications at the University of Montreal said, “A colleague went to get coffee this afternoon and came back with a very cool McCord Museum sleeve that conjures up an image on contact with the hot beverage. I think it's really interesting as a communication vehicle.” A student at UQAM said that “it's very original how the coffee sleeves reflect the exhibition,” while a student at McGill said that “it's brilliant how the sleeve uses polaroid technology.”
Credits
Valérie Leclerc, planning supervisor, Jungle MediaChristine Bérubé, marketing manager, Musée McCord
Pascale Grignon, marketing director, Musée McCord