HP HypeGallery

With the HYPE gallery, Hewlett Packard (HP) initiated a multimedia campaign aimed at repositioning the brand in the global printer market in the long term. The key task consisted of establishing HP as a trendy brand in the minds of the "iMac generation", which has a signal function for the mass market of the future.

An Orchestrated, Event-oriented Multimedia Campaign

iMac users as a target group are known for their particular distrust of traditional forms of advertising. In the product areas in question, their product preferences lie elsewhere. It was a matter of overcoming their ignorance of Hewlett Packard and of giving them personal, first-hand experience of the specific benefits of HP printers. This was to be achieved with the aid of an unconventional live presentation of the products.

Focusing on changing awareness

The campaign's performance targets took into account the influential role played by the "iMac generation" in the market of the future. Every target person reached will probably influence many others. For that reason, the campaign mainly focused on changing awareness within the target group and less on actual sales figures.

"HypeGallery" - an exhibition of art by the design community

The way the task was approached needed to be different from traditional forms of advertising in order to breathe new life into the HP brand. This is how the idea for the HypeGallery - an exhibition of art by the so-called design community in both the virtual and the real world - came about.

"Hype" is essentially a free gallery space where artists can promote themselves. The campaign made use of this one special key theme. HP's involvement only became evident to the target group when their works of art were printed out in glorious Technicolor on one of the company's large-format printers.

Using all of direct marketing's media and communication channels

All of direct marketing's innovative media and communication channels were used to spread the gallery idea: clean (legal) graffiti, hypertags, mail packets, press and radio, cinema, websites, online and skyscraper banners, viral marketing, fly posters, websites, JVTV (ASTA TV), postcards, etc. The two television stations, BBC and Bloomberg, covered the exhibition in UK-wide reports. There were local radio interviews and discussions in weblogs and on designer sites right around the world.

The campaign's starting point

The campaign's starting point was the target group's urge to express itself, and its need to communicate and be recognized by its peers. The only entry condition was that the artists should include the letters H and P in the title of their work. The creative part of the campaign was held in three stages.

Stage 1: Mystery, excitement and attention:

an inspiration website was refreshed on a weekly basis by adding newly created works of art. The temporary content was intended to provide some direction and inspiration to visitors, who were invited to register in order to create a community database. Weekly "appetizers" were crucial for the acceptance of the project.

Stage 2: Action and penetration:

stage 2 involved uploading of works, i.e. artists from all over the world were able to submit their works to the gallery. The gathering of data at the entrance to the gallery and registration on the website - a prerequisite for participating in the art project - laid the initial foundations for a database. The aim is to build it up by launching other, similar projects all over Europe and around the world and by adding further works of art.

Stage 3: PR and widespread impact:

three weeks later, the works that had been uploaded via the Internet or brought to the gallery in London on CD appeared on the website.

Staggering response

The response to the campaign was quite staggering. 5.5 million hits on the website and a database of over 80,000 registered artists who warmed to the HP brand. More than 130,000 individual visitors from 142 countries all over the world visited the website. During the campaign, more than 3,800 works of art were uploaded.

The homepage as the focal point of a worldwide community

As a result of its great success, the campaign is already being repeated right across Europe. In the end the homepage has become the focal point of a worldwide community and a valuable resource for tracking down new talent - free of charge.

Reference:

The complete study on the direct marketing campaign for "Hype Gallery" can be found in:
International Direct Marketing - the book
2nd edition
M. Kraft, J. Hesse, K. Peters, D. Rinas (Eds.)