Adobe Photoshop CC offers many technical features. But 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.

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

The unique Photoshop brush kit was launched using an influencer program and by creating press releases, pitching the news story in target media.

The brush kit was also supported by a set of campaign units designed to enhance the story, create engagement and spark conversations. These units included documentary imagery, a campaign video, digital painting tutorials, a campaign site, live streamed digital painting workshop with a few of the world’s best digital artists, a global digital painting competition and a special exhibition at the Munch Museum in Oslo.

The campaign was created and strategically lead from Sweden using PR-messaging guideline documents that was tactically executed on a global scale by focusing key media and influencers on local markets (EMEA, US, Asia)

Tier 1:

Target: 250 000 000 gross media impressions.

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

Overall sentiment was positive to neutral, with most articles mentioning the launch of the brush kit, the call to action on how to download them and the Munch Contest.

Tier 2:

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%.

Tier 3:

Main KPI’s

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%.

Besides the main KPI’s a number of other parameters was measured, who all showed exceptional results compared to previous campaigns.

– Traffic to the campaign site exceeded target by 54%

– Number of campaign video views exceeded target by 722%

– The competition that was made as a part of the campaign 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 unique brush kit was the centerpiece of the campaign with a PR-story at its core, from strategy to execution.

It used little to none paid media and success relied on earned impressions through global PR and social media.

Preserving classic works of art allows them to continually take on new meaning and influence people in new ways. To keep the classics in the public eye, prestigious museums like The Met in New York and The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam have begun to release their collections online into the public domain. This campaign was created to leverage and link to this phenomenon.

The primary target for marketing driven campaign aspects was creative industry media where the story was offered under embargo to identified key stakeholders. Additionally, bordering interest-clusters were identified and targeted telling the story of the importance of preserving cultural heritage.

By creating a one-of-a-kind set of Photoshop brushes we created both a compelling story and a powerful PR- and marketing tool that inspired our audience (creative professionals) to paint digitally in Photoshop CC .

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.