Aol: RAINBOW CITY

Credits & Description:

Category: Special Build
Advertiser: AOL / FRIENDS OF THE HIGH LINE
Product/Service: AOL / FRIENDS OF THE HIGH LINE
Agency: AOL CREATIVE LAB
Executive Creative Director: Arturo Sandoval/Sam Borkson
Creative Director: Maureen Sullivan
Photographer: Erika Velazquez
Illustrator: Steve Saiz
Account Supervisor: Nikki Macaluso
Advertiser's Supervisor: Kathryn Sierveld
Producer: Maureen Esposito
Account Manager: Eva Seta/Evelyn Monteil
Planner: Erica Gil
Account Manager: Eva Seta/Evelyn Monteil
Planner: Erica Gil
Other Credits: Justin Smith/Tara Morris/Joshua David/Robert Hammond/Adam Ganser
Ambient Execution Description
As part of a major partnership between AOL and Friends of the High Line to celebrate the opening of Section of 2 of the High Line, the work of world-renowned Miami art collective, FriendsWithYou, was brought to New York City for a month long public art installation from June 8 to July 5, 2011.
Rainbow City, a 40 piece interactive and environmental installation of colorful inflatables, filled a 16,000 square foot outdoor space at 30th Street and 10th Avenue, directly next to the end of Section 2 of the High Line in Chelsea, New York City. Rainbow City was open daily and free to the public. The installation appealed to children and adults alike with its colorful shapes, forms, and interactive nature, with each element towering over guests at heights from ten to forty feet. The space also featured a pop-up shop, built by HWKN, which sold FriendsWithYou/AOL/High Line branded items, allowing visitors a chance to “take a piece of the magic home.”
The installation was a manifestation of AOL's commitment to empowering creativity and bringing incredible experiences to the masses, in tangent with the High Line's core value of public engagement and preservation, all the while bringing to life FriendsWithYou's artistic vision.
The installation also served as the site for a variety of educational programs, organized by AOL and FriendsWithYou. The program, designed to encourage interactive participation, provided meaningful engagement in a creative environment, beyond the classroom experience. Students were invited to Rainbow City to interact with the installation as inspiration for their own creative discovery. Children were encouraged to work with program leaders to create their own version of the characters in Rainbow City. Sessions were held every Wednesday with different schools from the community, including the Blue School and Harlem Success Academy.

A customized Rainbow City digital experience was created that served as a platform for videos, updates, photos and more. The experience lived on AOLArtists.com, a site that displays the artists and artwork that have been commissioned as part of the AOL visual brand identity, as well as AOL’s major artistic and creative activations and partnerships. As resulting from the Rainbow City digital platform, the AOL Artists site saw a 31% increase in PVs and 21% increase in UVs, month over month.
Over 60,000 visitors came to the space, $35,000 of merchandise was sold, and AOL and the High Line were mentioned in over 253 press outlets with over 455 million in circulation.