The "40 Years" App
Meridian International, a cultural diplomacy organization, desired a brief media component to introduce a traveling photography exhibition documenting successful Chinese and American relationships over the last 40 years. The photography exhibition would travel to ten cities in China.
My client initially asked for a motion graphic, but I saw a creative opportunity to activate their museum visitors instead. In fact, by integrating the exploration of the exhibit with QR codes, the audiences could go deeper into the stories and participate with sharable digital postcards and game challenges created during experiences. This strategy would allow Meridian to widen significantly its audience reach while allowing exploration of all the photos online.
Creative Strategy
Attendees would use their own devices to dive behind the photos. As they explored, they helped market the exhibit.
The exhibit itself was made available on the app in sections of content. Audiences worldwide could hunt for QR codes at the show by attending in person or viewing the presentation on Meridian's website. These codes triggered stories and games about select photographs.
The animated games were designed to have outcomes that the user would want to share socially, transferring the exhibition and attracting new visitors to play and discover the exhibition content. This strategy brought exhibit exposure to the client and the exhibit, significantly increasing the value of the initial client deliverable.
I wrote the initial strategy and conceptual ideas, wrote the proposal, and sold the project. I managed the budget, hired the app developer to join our team, creatively directed the concept, and was the client's museum liaison.
Results
Audiences loved discovering the exhibit information and enjoying the entertainment experiences. All 50 photos were explored in the hunt, plus the five fun experiences. These included the opportunity to catch a chicken in a bucket at the KFC in China, to play a game of basketball against star player Yao Ming, to design a dress like the great Chinese American fashion designer Vera Wang, to send a postcard from Yosemite (the most visited landmark by Chinese tourists in America), to watch an animated cartoon about the giant panda's sent by Fed Ex to America, to watch short documentaries about dance and to watch an interview with Land Lang, one of the worlds most influential pianists,
App development collaboration with subcontractor Trivium Interactive.
http://www.meridian.org/lookingbacklookingforward/
The app included :
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Two games
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One interactive postcard
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One interactive design experience
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One animated video.
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Two documentary videos
