The Groove Issue 52 - The Five Most Creative Hacks from Banksy
THE FIVE MOST CREATIVE MARKETING HACKS FROM BANKSY
Truth be told, if you are in business, regardless of your industry, you can borrow something from Banksy, who, as a master of publicity, has figured out how to stay in the limelight since the early 2000s, all while remaining anonymous.
Whether you like it or not, we are all in the business of marketing ourselves and what we do, every day. And I don’t mean marketing as a sleazy term or conniving tactics, but as the creative vehicle you use to stand out, serve more people, and stay relevant.
When I learned that Banksy’s famous shredded piece will be back at auction next month, with an estimate of six times as much of the $1.4 million that its owner paid after the most incredible marketing and publicity stunt an artist has ever orchestrated, I thought it was a good time to look back at his most successful marketing hacks.
The Wow Factor
Banksy's “Love is in the Bin” at Sotheby's in 2018, after the painting passed through a hidden shredder.
In October 2018, one of Banksy's works, Balloon Girl, was sold in an auction at Sotheby's in London for £1.04m. Shortly after the gavel dropped, an alarm sounded inside of the artwork and the canvas passed through a shredder hidden within the frame, partially shredding the picture of the girl.
Imagine the faces of all the onlookers when that happened in such a prestigious venue.
The idea of a self-destructing artwork is entirely at odds with the aims of the auction house, where the condition of an artwork is paramount and the knowledge and expertise about it is core to its authority and value.
Shortly after the sale, Sotheby's released a press statement saying that the self-destruction of the work was a prank by the artist, generating more than 30,000 news stories in the following days after the shredding happened. Talk about creativity!
The partially shredded work has been given a new title, Love is in the Bin, and it was authenticated by Banksy's Pest Control. The artwork remains half shredded in its frame, which once concealed a mechanism that Banksy later implied had malfunctioned, prohibiting the work from falling like scraps to the floor.
And with this, Banksy didn't destroy an artwork but instead created the first one in history to have been made live during an auction. Multiplying its value immediately.
Creating wow moments, wow services and wow products is what determines the success of a business or an artist career. Not necessarily with stunts like Banksy (although for inspiration purposes, they are pretty exciting) but by serving your clients, customers, readers, audience and collectors with excellence and by surprising them strategically here and there.
If you look around, the bar is pretty low. One-trick ponies, poor customer service, repetitive products, artists that never evolve and keep doing the same things time-and-time again seem to be more common than the opposite.
But every time you give extraordinary service, under promise and overdeliver, or strive to move and excite your audience with each new body of work, then you have wowed someone.
Humor Always Works
Banksy’s stall on Fifth Avenue in 2013.
Banksy is the king of pranks in the art world. He actually enjoys poking fun at the industry while somewhat being a part of it.
In October 2013, he set up a street vendor on Fifth Avenue near Central Park. The stall was attended by an unknown elderly man who went about four hours before making the first sale, while yawning and eating lunch as people strolled by without a second glance at the work. That day, a few tourists were able to buy Banksy’s art for less than a meal at a cheap New York restaurant.
Banksy chronicled the surprise sale in a video posted on his website and on YouTube, noting that "Yesterday I set up a stall in the park selling 100% authentic original signed Banksy canvases.
For $60 each.” In the video, he placed slides with text and after seven hours, the total amounted to $410 because most of the canvases didn’t find buyers. But those who bought didn’t waste time and two of the paintings sold at an auction in July 2014 for $214,000.
How this works in business is not about getting off-brand, but it’s about getting people to laugh with you. (Not at you). Brands like Netflix and Charmin have used humor on social media to engage their audiences. Contemporary artists like Richard Prince and Maurizio Cattelan have built large audiences and fortunes relying on humor.
Humor does more than just make people laugh. It allows you to connect with your audience, diffuse tension, elevate status, foster trust, and compel others to your point of view.
The Mystery Halo Keeps People Engaged
This is how Banksy “appears” in Exit Through the Gift Shop.
For someone as famous as Banksy, it’s also paradoxical that he is anonymous. He seems to be more into the art, stunts, pranks and shock, than into being known, receiving awards and being photographed on the cover of magazines.
When Banksy directed his documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, in 2010, most of the story develops by following the moves of Thierry Guetta, a French artist living in Los Angeles better known as Mr. Brainwash. Banksy makes very few appearances (his face is darkened, he is wearing a hoodie and his voice is distorted), yet he is the one that people want to know most about.
Suspense and mystery are indispensable elements of a successful product launch. Like Steve Jobs used to do in his annual Apple conferences. The trick is not to extend the suspense for too long, or the audience will lose interest. A bit, however, can do wonders for a marketing campaign.
Use Meaningful Causes to Add Value
Cosette, painted by Banksy with a stencil on the walls of the French Embassy in London in 2016.
Banksy is 100% into social and political activism even if he loathes the use of those words. Many of his graffiti points at situations that he criticizes: like when he painted, on the walls of the French embassy in London, Cosette, a character from Les Miserables engulfed in smoke and with tears in her eyes to point at the use of teargas in the Calais Jungle in France in 2016.
Most recently, during the first wave of the pandemic he donated a painting honoring UK healthcare workers to the University Hospital Southampton in London and the hospital put it at auction for £16.7 million ($23.1 million) at Christie's in London. The proceeds from the hammer price were donated to University Hospital Southampton and health organizations and charities across the country.
People love when they know that a percentage of the proceeds of a product will go to a charity. There are companies like TOMS that continue to commit 1/3 of its profits to supporting various grassroots efforts year-round, and companies like New Balance, which last year committed $2 million in non-profit grants in response to the pandemic to support local, regional and global communities. That makes them look good while doing good.
Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
Dismaland. Richard Andrews / Alamy Stock Photo
Nothing creative or innovative has ever come out of complacency and Banksy is the epitome of that.
One of his most difficult and ambitious projects, which brought together all the other four hacks above, was Dismaland: a temporary art park on the seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, England.
Banksy rented Tropicana, an empty lido located on the Bristol Channel coast, and turned it into a sinister open park that opened for 36 days in the summer of 2016. He described it as a "family theme park unsuitable for children." That description alone called the attention of all his fans and detractors who were immediately interested in attending.
He created ten new works and funded the construction of the exhibition himself. The show featured 58 artists including Damien Hirst, David Shrigley and Jenny Holzer. 4,000 tickets were available for purchase per day, priced at £3 each.
Dismaland received 150,000 visitors in the five-week period it was open. After it closed, the building material for the project was repurposed as shelters for refugees in the Calais Jungle where Banksy also painted murals.
While I love all of these hacks, I know there are some that work better than others depending on your industry.
What is undeniably true is that, like Banksy does, well-executed marketing can help you make some good noise in this saturated and at times, unoriginal, world.
Thank you for reading this far. Looking forward to hearing from you anytime.
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