U.S. tours of the Yayoi Kusama exhibition drew sell-out crowds, but in Canada, awareness of the artist was very low: 80% of the GTA had no idea who the artist was, or the nature of the exhibit.

We found that people were more likely to attend after seeing examples of Kusama’s art, so we brought the artwork to the people by placing actual Kusama artwork onto public spaces in downtown Toronto.

All installations featured the polka dots, a signature of Yayoi Kusama, and included a hashtag (#infinitekusama) and nothing more. We also literally “Kusama-ized” subway stations and streetcars, as well as a key storefront on Queen West, and further drove significant digital traffic via homepage takeovers on The Globe & Mail, the Toronto Star and the CBC on specific days.

RESULTS

• CBC Radio declared the exhibition was the biggest art event in decades.
• Massive public lineups waiting for digital ticket sales (as much as 9 hours), as well as long lineups daily at 8am outside the gallery to purchase tickets.
• A social media hit with 63,644 Instagram postings of #infinitekusama.
• Surpassed the attendance targets by +12.7%.
• $658,000 in no-charge partnered space with a total media value to spend ratio of 5:1.
• Received two 2018 Media Innovation Awards.