In collaboration with the Munch Museum in Oslo, we digitized the over 100-year-old original paintbrushes of Norwegian master painter Edvard Munch, creator of the world-famous painting ’The Scream’. The fragile originals were transformed into an exclusive set of Photoshop brushes to inspire and engage a new generation of artists to paint like a master, using a piece of art history.

Working closely with conservation experts at the Munch Museum, each original brush was photographed in 360 degrees using ultra-high-resolution cameras, to create an accurate three-dimensional representation. Munch’s artistic style and brushwork were analyzed combined with laboratory data about the brushes’ attributes, including physical properties such as flexibility and bristle type.

The world’s foremost authority on Photoshop brushes, Kyle T. Webster, transformed the data into digital representations of Munch’s brushes, capturing the exact shape and performance attributes of each brush.

The unique Photoshop brush set was made available for free download and distributed globally via Adobe’s social channels, blogs and websites. The campaign assets included: press releases, campaign imagery, campaign videos, digital painting tutorials, campaign site, live streamed digital painting workshop with a few of the world’s best digital artists, digital painting competition, influencer program, e-DRs, social media posts, blog posts and an exhibition at the Munch Museum in Oslo.

Target: 1000 brush set downloads.

Result: 40 500 brush set downloads. Exceeding target by 3950%.

Target: 12 000 new Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers.

Result: 35 000 new Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers. Exceeding target by 292%.

Target: 250 000 000 gross media impressions.

Result: 1.03 billion gross media impressions. Exceeding target by 401%.

Worth mentioning: Adobe User Brand Engagement Scorecard showed that individuals who encountered the campaign showed an increased brand engagement by 25% compared to the control group. Individuals who downloaded the brush set increased brand engagement by 73%.

Additional campaign metrics:

– Traffic to Adobe.com exceeded target by 54%

– Campaign video views exceeded target by 722%

– Campaign competition received 44% more contributions than expected.

– The number of interactions in Adobes social channels exceeded target by 611%

– Social sentiment showed 100% positive or neutral attitude towards the campaign.

The campaign invites the Adobe community to interact with the product, Adobe Photoshop CC, at the same time as telling a brand relevant story by preserving a forgotten part of art history. The main KPI was to drive active use, and get the audience to experience digital painting within Adobe Photoshop – a KPI that was more than successfully met.

Adobe Photoshop CC offers many technical features and possibilities. To get our target group (existing Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers and potential subscribers active within the creative field) to paint digitally, we needed to create something with a soul, something unique beyond the technology and software. Our solution was to provide the professional Adobe community with an asset that enhanced their brand vision of 'thought leadership in creativity’

Adobe Creative Cloud is the world-leading producer of digital creative tools. In 2017 they wanted to inspire creative professionals to paint digitally. With the aim to enhance their brand vision of 'thought leadership in creativity’, increase active use in Photoshop CC and generate new subscribers.

Objectives

– Target: 1000 brush set downloads.

– Target: 12 000 new Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers.

– Target: 250 000 000 gross media impressions.