Air-Ink takes what is suffocating the streets, air pollution, and repurposes it to make them beautiful again.  It’s living proof of street-smart creativity, from the beer of the streets, for the streets.  Beyond the technology, Air-Ink is a brand, a range of products, a creative community, and a campaign to celebrate the cultural power and vibrancy of the streets.  As a creative idea, Air-Ink’s impact grows and changes depending on where it lives, and in whose hands.  In the hands of artists, it can create thought-provoking pieces or simply beautify their street environments. In the hands of the rest of our conscientious demographic, it’s used to petition for change. This is not the end of the Air-Ink story. Tiger has handed the rights for the brand over to Graviky Labs, to give it the best chance during the next phases of lobbying on the road to its mass implementation.

We partnered with Anirudh Sharma, the inventor of the soot-converting technology, to develop devices that attached to exhausts of ferries, cranes and Tiger Beer delivery trucks. These captured pollution before it reached the air.  The harvested carbon was purified and turned into safe, high-quality ink.   Air-Ink pens and markers were given to street artists and activists, who used them to create art, murals and advertising in London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Chicago, Amsterdam, New York, Sydney and Berlin. To bring the story to the world, we created a short film, seeding it across key markets heavily affected by pollution. We drove conversation through community engagement, celebrating the innovation and answering questions - from artists, engineers and every-day consumers. Activations included billboard sites in city centres and gallery takeovers for live drawing events with members of the public and media. Air-Ink was also used to petition mayors to trial on public transport.

Of the top ten biggest global beers, Tiger is now the fastest growing premium beer in the world.  Air-Ink is the brands most hard-working and broad-reaching campaign to date, accelerating the brand’s expansion into new markets and reinvigorating brand perceptions in Asia.  In terms of reach, we generated over 2.75 Billion impressions (worth over 4.6M$ US) and over 36 million video views with this campaign.  In terms of environmental impact, we have produced 770l of Air-Ink, that’s equivalent to 20,000 hours of CO2 emissions captured before reaching the air.  We filled 26,000 pens used to create over 1000 artworks.  These artworks will be showcased in Tiger Beer bars as global gallery installation in 2018.   

Air-Ink reinvents Ink, one of man’s oldest communication tools.  It also creates its own earned media every time it’s used by street artists and activists to whom it’s given. With over 2.1 Billion earned media impressions it has fueled global conversation around accessible ways to address pollution and established Tiger beer as a committed, sustainable partner for its outlets as well as end consumers and creative key opinion leaders. In short, a new type of communication act, invented with and for a new generation of beer drinkers, by the fastest growing beer in the world.

In order to reach our audience and strengthen Tiger’s street credentials we needed to grow their fame amongst the influential, but hard to reach, street-creativity scene. We did this by making something both useful and inspiring.  The Air-Ink brand name, positioning, product range and distribution strategy were specifically designed to engage street-artists.  They were then invited to experiment with Air-Ink to participate in core activations and events.  Locations and artists were carefully selected for their shared values with Tiger Beer as well as their influence within their creative community.  These people served as key opinion leaders and ambassadors for the campaign.  In line with this “streets-up” approach, influencer and consumer voices came together in bars to petition local governments to take Air-Ink to the next level.  

Tiger Beer is the beer of the streets. A majority of its revenue (62%) comes from street-food outlets and outdoor venues and Tiger has a history of supporting street culture in activations and events. The brief was to come up with an unconventional idea that would achieve two goals: First, cut-through marketing noise to engage a young generation of beer drinkers with something honest and striking.

Second, strengthen the relationship with independent street outlets and edgy bars they attend. Tiger does not have the media spend of other global premium beer brands and needed something provocative that would work streets-up, generating PR and earned reach. The insight was that Tiger’s street heritage loses all value and meaning if people can’t actually enjoy street culture and street life. The real enemy is bigger than any competitor. It is in the air we breathe.