Attracting over 1 million visitors to Downtown Toronto across the globe, Nuit Blanche is one of the most celebrated art events in Canada. Two weeks ago, Jessica and I, just like many other students at the event, bussed over from Kingston and stayed up all night for over 100 installations around the city. As much as I enjoyed the artworks themselves, the business student side of me has not been able to stop thinking about the breadth and depth of corporate involvement throughout the event. In this post, I would like to talk about how top businesses in Toronto might have leveraged Nuit Blanche as an unique branding opportunity.
It was my first time at Nuit Blanche and I was surprised by the crowd. However, businesses and sponsors of the event, unlike me, obviously understood the popularity of Nuit Blanche and were prepared to impress their potential customers with the power of art.
[One of the 680+ Instagram post with #netflixredforest over the night]
Netflix was another first timer at Nuit Blanche. Collaborating with local artists, Netflix brought the visitors the Red Forest, in which guests would dress up in the same white jumpsuits from its Strangers’ Things series, and explore an upside-down world. The Huge fan base of the show as well as art lovers were soon drawn to the installation, when it opened at 6pm. By the time of 11pm, the wait was estimated to be four hours long according to the event volunteers. Throughout the night, there were activities on site of people walking around, sharing insights, and anxiously waiting to get a peek of this exclusive installation, as well as on social media of Toronto visitors sharing their excitement with the entire world.
After a quick interview with Nuit Blanche, we can easily see how Nuit Blanche could be considered a valuable venue for this global show maker and broadcaster. According to Michael Brown, Sponsorship manager, Economic Development and Culture at City of Toronto, Nuit Blanche’s primary audience is the 18-to-34-year-old demographic, who most likely also share an interest in art, popular culture, and adventures. The unique opportunity to access this group and engage them both via online promotion and offline activities allows Nuit Blanche to present an unique value proposition to Netflix, as well as many other consumer brands sponsoring the event, including H&M and Hendricks Gin.
In my opinion, the success behind Netflix’s campaign stems from from the relevance of the event and their installation with the message they are promoting. After reading various post about Netflix’s participation at Nuit Blanche on social media, we walked across the crowd and located the installation. What we saw was a half-opened alley emitting strong red light, with dozens of guests walking out of the tour in their white uniform and hundreds more waiting in lines. Right besides the line-up, a 2-floor tall Netflix billboard broadcasted the trailer for its upcoming sequel to the Stranger Things, hitting the internet on Halloween. For visitors, who made it into the installation, they probably would develop stronger connection with the brand and the series. Even for the majority of other guests, who witnessed the phenomenon or attempted to go inside, would also remember they will have another chance to remedy their unsatisfied curiosity a month later. This time, finally they will be able to find out more about the mystery firsthand in the show.
Art Events such as Nuit Blanche have created as much opportunities for international brands as for smaller local businesses. This installation above (#56: Stratigraphy: Landscape Imprints) exhibits a 3-dimensional map of Toronto, with the city’s landscape and histories engraved on the panel,). Located inside 401 Richmond, an iconic gallery and office building in Toronto, the installation presents a chance for surrounding businesses to take advantage of the excited visitors overflowing the area. The Spacing Store, though not an official sponsor, has captured this opportunity and welcomed passionate shoppers even past midnight. Not only Nuit Blanche brings the Spacing Store additional traffic, the specific installation and the association to art also strengthens the Spacing Store’s brand as an edgy and design-centric souvenir store.
Of course, the purpose of this blog post is not, by any means, to support the commercialization of art to the degree of influencing artists’ own voice. Rather, I was thrilled to find out how these businesses do see a value in supporting art, and the reason behind that is the growing public interest in art, design and creative expression. Do you have any example of interesting art patronage? Please comment below and I look forward to reading your stories.
This post would not have been possible without the support from Nuit Blanche and Art History at Queen’s.
I may have to share this with some artists. I’ve been to Toronto once. I would have loved to attend any first friday gallery event there but this White Night sounds like a First Friday on steroids.
I had no idea that Netflix was this involved in promoting art/installations as a means to promote their brand. I miss all the movies they used to carry but their brand is stellar…and I am almost 3 decades away from their intended audience. The directing, camerawork, cinematography etc of many of their original works/series puts Hollywood to shame.
The Commercialization of art. Ugh, we’ve always had to seek patronage, no? At least we are out from the narrow confines of the Church controlling/buying art of centuries past. Multi-nationals like Netflix, are they the new Medici’s?
Thanks for sharing. I’m heading off to do a Bing-like search of more images from this event.
We definitely recommend checking the event out! I personally love First Fridays as well, but Nuit Blanche gives such a different vibe. It’s such a great gathering of artists and fun compilation of different mediums. We totally agree with you on the seeking patronage piece; it’s really rare to find true art nowadays since it seems to be necessary to have some aspect of commercialization in order for them to survive and thrive.
Thanks for stopping by our blog and we’d love if you shared our post with some other artists 🙂