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Client: Benjamin Moore
Creative Firm: AKQA - New York, NY, USA
Creative Team: Mehera O'Brien - Creative Director; Mariana Bukvic - Senior Art Director; Keith Zang - Copywriter; Kaare Wesnaes - Director of Creative Development; Yi Liu - Senior Creative Developer; Kenny Lin - Creative Developer

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Marketing paint may seem as exciting as, well, watching it dry. To make buying paint appealing and even fun, Benjamin Moore launched its new paint line, Ben, with the help of New York agency AKQA. The aim was to create an experience that drove brand awareness and consideration among a new audience: young, design-savvy experience seekers. Drawing upon the concept that everyone experiences color differently and across the Benjamin Moore color spectrum, AKQA enticed consumers with questions such as, "What's the color of your imagination? And what about the color of wicked? Of rock 'n roll?"

With seven weeks from concept to live launch, AKQA had a lot to think about, particularly where cultural significance is involved. "Americans wear white to weddings. It means purity. Yet in China, this color represents death and mourning," the agency says. "The idea that colors have rich cultural and emotional meaning, and that this meaning is unique to each of us, drove the creative thinking. From a brand perspective, Benjamin Moore provides the largest assortment of colors in the market - and by extension, the greatest license to express personal style." With color product names ranging from descriptive to playful -"Icing on the Cake" and "Forget Me Not," to name a couple-AKQA drove the idea to develop a "word association" interface that invited users to think about their own ideas on color.