Images courtesy of Wang Wei, Engkiat Tan and others
The architect Usman Haque made this project, The Burble, which was an installation performance of fantastic and magical proportions situated in the public space. It is very interesting in terms of how marketing works today and how it’s dictating the use of public space and leading the way to new initiatives in outdoor advertisement. It could perhaps be considered as a future replacement even, if the channels that we have today would disappear for some reason. The endorsement by brands of public events will, in my mind, become more frequent as public opinion changes and that in a way challenges brands to communicate more creatively as opposed to mainstreamed and conventional.
The way that this particular project was perceived and in extension how the public reacted to it, was in direct relation to the underlying marketing strategy by the commissioners, in this case an art event and a fashion event. The first time the event happened it was marketed as the opening of the Singapore Biennale, the second time it was the opening of the London Fashion week. The amount of brand exposure in these two cases was significantly different. In the Singaporean implementation of it, it was received as a public art event and the media picked up on it, giving them quite a lot of brand exposure in different media, ranging from art, architecture and even technology, so people flocked to this event, extending the brand value since it was seen to be hosting an inclusive big fun project. In London on the other hand, it was unfortunately renamed “The Moet Mirage” as part of the marketing strategy and this actually worked against them, since it was seen as an exclusive corporate event and in extension a pr stunt, so the media didn’t really pick it up in the same extent as in Singapore. Here is what the Times Lifestyle & Fashion commented on it and you can clearly tell its conventionality by being featured in the cryptic "Women" section. Even the reporter seems to think that it was a bad idea to rename it. You could off course argue that they where not only different brands, targeting a very different audience, but the fact remains that the free brand exposure in the media could have been much more extensive, had the fashion event commissioner been less conventional in their branding model and more inclusive and creative in their marketing. In the end, they could have really spun from the art event itself even and thus linked the brand with other disciplines, global audiences and media, further extending the values and getting loads of free exposure.
The way that this particular project was perceived and in extension how the public reacted to it, was in direct relation to the underlying marketing strategy by the commissioners, in this case an art event and a fashion event. The first time the event happened it was marketed as the opening of the Singapore Biennale, the second time it was the opening of the London Fashion week. The amount of brand exposure in these two cases was significantly different. In the Singaporean implementation of it, it was received as a public art event and the media picked up on it, giving them quite a lot of brand exposure in different media, ranging from art, architecture and even technology, so people flocked to this event, extending the brand value since it was seen to be hosting an inclusive big fun project. In London on the other hand, it was unfortunately renamed “The Moet Mirage” as part of the marketing strategy and this actually worked against them, since it was seen as an exclusive corporate event and in extension a pr stunt, so the media didn’t really pick it up in the same extent as in Singapore. Here is what the Times Lifestyle & Fashion commented on it and you can clearly tell its conventionality by being featured in the cryptic "Women" section. Even the reporter seems to think that it was a bad idea to rename it. You could off course argue that they where not only different brands, targeting a very different audience, but the fact remains that the free brand exposure in the media could have been much more extensive, had the fashion event commissioner been less conventional in their branding model and more inclusive and creative in their marketing. In the end, they could have really spun from the art event itself even and thus linked the brand with other disciplines, global audiences and media, further extending the values and getting loads of free exposure.
