Everybody loves a bit of storydoing these days, don’t you think? Sending men into space and asking them to get home by jumping back; putting some fancy shoes on a bloke and asking him to run a sub-2 hour marathon; or creating a mock up of a Van Gogh’s painting of his bedroom, and renting it out on Airbnb.
 

Storydoing is touted as the antidote to one-way broadcast media. It signifies a brand with imagination, bravery and vision. Bold acts of storydoing (or ‘activations’ as we used to call them) also drive earned media. And earned media is the holy grail of marketing (and of procurement). So everyone’s happy when it works out.

When the Art Institute of Chicago brought all three of Van Gogh’s paintings of his bedroom in Arles together for the first time in North America, they wanted a way to drive traffic to the exhibition. Rather than put up a load of outdoor advertising, they did something a little more creative – they built a life size model of the bedroom (somewhere in Chicago), imitating the artist’s style right right down to the big brushstrokes, vibrant colours and wonky curves of the furniture.

Then they rented it out on Airbnb with some wonderfully understated, witty copy. The room “is decorated in a Post-Impressionist style” and is being charged out “for $10 for no other reason than I need to buy paint”.

For the casual news snacker, it’s perhaps confusing to understand why Airbnb was renting out bedrooms themed like paintings. Until you dig deeper and find out that the Art Institute of Chicago has something to do with it. So did the stunt drive earned media? It certainly did for Airbnb. And it certainly did for Van Gogh, who I’m sure would have been pleased. But perhaps not so much for the gallery behind the whole thing.

Perhaps it doesn’t really matter. Ultimately, online ticket sales were up 250% and the show was the highest attended exhibition in 15 years. And we all had art in our newsfeeds for a moment, instead of cat gifs and pictures of other peoples’ lunch. That’s a success already.

By Katie Ewer, Strategy Director, jkr Singapore

Van Gogh BNB, Art Institute of Chicago, Leo Burnett Chicago (Cannes Lions Winner 2016)