ING sees progress and innovation as the answer to the negative effect that the financial crisis has had on their brand. ING is constantly innovating their products and services by using new technologies - especially data – thus increasing customer value. ING has also supported icons of Dutch art and culture, such as the Rijksmuseum, for many years.

The brief from ING was simple: the agency was asked to create and execute a campaign to bring ING’s innovative spirit to its sponsorship of Dutch art and culture – a world riddled with tradition.

The objectives of the PR campaign were two-fold: firstly to kick off a global discourse about art’s relation to technology and to facilitate a dialogue about where innovation will take us next; and secondly to put ING in the middle of this conversation. Thus building ING’s reputation as one of the most innovative banks in the world.

Experts from the art and tech world, the international press and the general public were invited for the unveiling and exhibition of The Next Rembrandt. In Amsterdam, the place where Rembrandt worked and lived, a modern art gallery was transformed into an exhibition space for this 3D printing painting made out of Rembrandt data. Two big screens with the actual algorithms at work were playing behind the easel with the painting, made out of zero’s and ones. Special banners showed the 4 steps process that lead to the creation of this unique artwork. And the launch film of The Next Rembrandt was playing on screens at the back of the gallery.

The special gallery was the place where the conversation about where data and technology can take us, started. From there it went global.

On nextrembrandt.com people from all over the world were invited to dive deeper into the process of creating this 3D printed painting made out of zero’s and ones.

In designing the UX for the story about ‘The Next Rembrandt’, we have placed the initial emphasis of the experience on the artwork itself (the final painting). From this point we can branch into the different steps that make the story of creating ‘The Next Rembrandt’.

By first presenting the final result of the project (the artwork) and then presenting the steps that brought us to the final result (thus deliberately reversing the story), we created a user journey that sets gaining interest and emotional engagement prior to offering deeper information behind each step. Both the experience and the absorption of detailed information are being optimised by this specific journey that includes rich visual stimulation and intuitive interactivity.

We used the main subject (the artwork) as our common thread while guiding the users through the story. Regions of interest of the artwork are being used to present the steps, one by one. Upon scrolling, the experience dynamically zooms in on sections of the artwork and adjusts the camera position accordingly to the step of concern. From these regions of interest, users can delve into selected steps of the story of creating ‘The Next Rembrandt’. The in depth information shows rich visuals and animations correlating to the active chapters, which are, again, responsive to the user’s scrolling behavior.

And so, nextrembrandt.com played a pivotal role in getting the world to know more about what made Rembrandt Rembrandt and join the conversation about ING’s innovative sponsorship defying imagination.