25 years ago, the Canon Rebel gave the power of pro photography to everyone and broke down walls. For its anniversary, we did it again, this time in the art world, with “The Unknowns.”

It’s almost impossible for unknown artists to break into the art world. We set out to change that. First, we asked them to submit their work via social media. Art instantly flooded in. Then, one night, we took over museums throughout New York City, projecting their work onto museum facades, giving unknown artists the recognition they deserve.

PR exploded garnering 1-billion earned media impressions. The art world took notice. Sotheby’s, the renowned art/auction house, opened its doors to these unknown artists. All proceeds went to them.

The initiative was captured entirely on the Rebel T6i. Ultimately demonstrating what it’s capable of and still stands for 25 years later.

In late January 2016, an intriguing call-to-action went out on social media, asking artists to post their work and add #theunknowns for a chance to be part of something big. In a matter of days, thousands of submissions poured in. On February 1st, Canon selected the best of these submissions and hijacked museums across New York City (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx) to project the pieces for all to see. Social media drove foot traffic to each location and street teams prompted spectators to capture and share the projections, allowing people online to follow our rebel gallery experience in real time. The world took notice. Later that week, Sotheby's opened its doors to our unknown artists, kicking off an auction of their work.

The hero film, all captured on the Canon EOS Rebel T6i, was distributed via social, pre-roll, static and rich media banners, garnering more than 1 billion earned impressions.

The Call-to-Action on social media for unknown artists garnered more than 2,000 submissions in just a few days. The projection activation and the final films have garnered more than 1 billion earned impressions. The campaign hashtags #theunknowns and #CanonRebel received over 3,000 posts and 99% of the sentiments were positive.