ABOUT

The Brief

Liquitex was a trusted brand that was strong on innovation but their comms weren’t resonating with today’s artists (professionals through to hobbyists). Liquitex had been creating content that was often felt predictably passive and inconsistent across campaigns and channels. We needed to reinvigorate the Liquitex brand with a platform that drove awareness and brand preference among the creative community. We needed to create a platform that would launch with a bang – and the endurance to form the bedrock of future campaigns for many years to come.



Mediums

The brand was relaunched with a minute hero video, a teaser trailer, 3 x individual artists cutdowns in social and display. The Website and Amazon store were both updated to reflect the newly developed platform. Accompanying the digital activity were print formats and the concept was unleashed to the art world at a launch-party in New York. All the work was supported by the development of a brand book, created to inspire the art direction and tone of voice of all new assets.



Concept

While competitor paint brands show efficacy of their products with finished artworks, we felt this not only limited appeal but didn’t connect emotionally with our audience. Our platform unashamedly focuses on the often-imperfect journey and experience of creating art, capturing it as a work in progress, working the angles, questioning one’s ability, pushing through the pain barrier to a confidently satisfying conclusion – ultimately speaking to our audience in their own language and building an emotional connection on a far deeper level than ever before.

‘Just imagine’ gave Liquitex a clear role as an enabler without distracting from the artists’ talent, by showing that if they could ‘imagine it’ our support and products would be there to bring it to reality.



Execution

Working closely with three highly respected artists with distinctly different styles, our 60” hero film came to life as a visual and visceral love letter to all phases of the creative process and launched JUST IMAGINE into the world with in-your-face colour and infectious energy.

Along with teaser and artist cutdown edits, the launch was also supported by a series of posters that put the new JUST IMAGINE art direction, photography, and tone of voice front and centre.



Results:

Capturing the true experience and energy of creating art was bold and gave real distinctiveness within the category. Although the campaign has only just launched in New York at the time of writing, the reaction from our audience has been overwhelming – the work really seems to have hit the spot and resonated with their own experiences of trial, error, frustration, euphoria – often all at once.


“I just wanted to send you a message to say how much I liked the Liquitex video. My mind keeps going back to it, which means it must be very effective! The moment with the close up of the eye actually gave me chills. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I’m excited to share it out and have others see it. I think it will really inspire people." - Kristen Brown, Artist

"The Just Imagine video makes a unique statement and speaks to the free spirit within artists.  It is a statement of youthful creative freedom that we all want to unabashedly express. 

Here my take when I watch it and wondering if our customers experience it somehow this way: 

There is a freedom to be creatively connected; inwardly through our imagination and outwardly through the flow of the dynamic motion of reality.  Just imagine – without words, without overthinking thinking about it simply experiencing – freedom.  

The music, a sensory pulse of the natural chaos and noise and moving with it.  The powerful human expressions of both joy and pain, common reminder of how we truly connect with life to find our creative way with the rhythm and motion living in the moment.  Materials at work, an extension of the artist free expression. Just imagine is simply being to choose our realities.  - Tom James President/CEO Opus Art Supplies

The results showed that artists were really connecting with the video with a 65% VTR on amazon display. The video assets also drove action with a 41% increase in traffic to brand store & 64% increase in dwell time on Amazon (compared to Amazon average). Whilst it’s early days with the new platform, we’ve already seen an uplift in sales by 25% vs previous year.