Create Campaigns that Matter in a Time of Crisis
A physically distanced, Covid-19 safe, projection mapping XM Experience
A physically distanced, Covid-19 safe, projection mapping XM Experience
Where Eagles Dare
Every spring, the City of Toronto gathers to revel in the ephemeral beauty of the Sakura (cherry blossoms) located in High Park, Trinity Bellwoods, the CNE, and other sites around the city. In an e ort to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Toronto barricaded access to the cherry blossoms from the public during their fleeting bloom period.
As COVID-19 caseloads overwhelmed the Canadian healthcare system, stay-at-home orders and mandatory shutdowns forced the shuttering of tens of thousands of businesses across Ontario. There was an observable rise in anti-Asian and Pacific Islander hate crime across Canada and around the world.
As an agency that cherishes its cultural diversity and is lead by people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, we knew it was time for us to put our design and technology where our mouth is and create a program of our own that would remind the citizens of Toronto about the importance of our acceptance and the wondrous things that can bloom even from the darkest of days.
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This is how we help to stop the hate
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The Challenge:
In a time of endless lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, it is near impossible to create a campaign, especially one with a positive message that cuts through the noise of the widespread hysteria of the pandemic. To add an impactful and positive counter-voice amid the devastation of small businesses and the overabundance of contradictory reports of what we as people should and should not be doing during these di cult times, we had to find a way to create an experience that honoured diversity and would inspire people to rediscover the beauty that surrounds us from Asian cultures.
Our Solution: Fuse Art with Technology
The Ontario population was facing total burnout from a lack of experiences and opportunity to socialize. Given the heavy restrictions on social gatherings, we needed to create an experience that was physically distanced but captivating enough to capture an audience’s attention.
The team at Bottle Cap drew inspiration from their very “nerdy” childhoods and looked to Asian culture. What we came up with fused Art with Technology by creating a “Walk By” projection experience that included a subtle nod to Manga culture with gesture-based air bending.
The result, a rear-projected, motion-tracked, gesture-based, sprite emitter that made virtualized cherry blossoms rain down on passersby but also allowed them to manipulate and control droves of petals with simple hand and body gestures.
The Technology
Taking it a step further:
One of the core practices we pride ourselves on is creating full campaign universes. This is where your IRL experience matches your URL experience and vice versa and is supported by multiple marketing facets; Web, digital ads, social posts and stories, OOH creative, XM, etc.
The idea is to create a unified experience that has an omnichannel approach that allows your audience to gain a well-rounded perspective on your campaign and ultimately drives them to buy in.
As we started to develop the program we noticed that there weren’t as many resources to draw awareness to the increase in Anti-Asian sentiment as we would have liked to work with. Once again, the Bottle Cap team put into action creating logos, landing pages, and created a full brand universe for the BlossomTO campaign.
The logo design for Stop Asian Hate included two elements, an open palm as well as cherry blossom. At first viewers engage with the Stop messaging with the common cross walk halted hand, but then as the context unfolds it becomes clear that the hand containing the flower symbolizes the embrace and protection of AAPI community represented in the blossom itself. Once we set forth with branding we created engaging social posts as well as a web experience to educate visitors.
