Bombay Sapphire

Art or Ads?

Since 2010, Bombay Sapphire has partnered with the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation to showcase artwork from multicultural artists through its Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series competition.

To encourage votes for 2019’s competition, BBDO New York created a Google Chrome extension called ‘Artifier’ that replaces banner ads with works of art. Viewers who see a piece of artwork that catches their eye can click on that painting to vote for the artist behind the piece of work. Voting ended on Nov. 7, but the extension is still available.

I really like what Bombay has done here. it’s a nice workaround if you don’t have an ad-blocker running in your browser. It promotes the artist competition, shows Bombay’s commitment to the arts, and it gets rid of all the targeted advertising that gets rammed down your throat with every browsing session. This is a subtle way to promote the Bombay brand without using heavy-handed advertising tactics. Plus my guess is that Bombay knows after most people install the extension, they won’t turn it off so it will continue to promote the Bombay brand all year. Clever.

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Bombay Sapphire Maps the Battersea Power Station.

Projection mapping events rely on the space in which they are held. The space is as important as the mapped images and audio itself. I have seen a ton of this stuff in the last year, and seems to be gaining even more ground as we roll through 2011. The thing is, in many cases, the venue that is chosen doesn’t do justice to the video, audio, or brand image of the product or service being promoted.

Last night Bombay Sapphire got it right when they illuminated the Battersea Power Station in London. The shape of the building mirrors the iconic Bombay Sapphire bottles, the imagery, color pallet, and audio are all reflective of the brand and the target audience they are trying to reach. Designed and created by Drive Productions, an independent company that specialise in live events, they brought to life  the  Battersea Power Station for the first time since 1975.

A side note here. I am always curious about how long these things run. I can’t imagine this is a one time event. The development cost alone is huge, and any marketing director worth their weight would want to use this kind of thing more than once. If anyone knows how long this is actually going to run would you post a comment and let us know.