ArtPrize is, in and of itself, an innovative endeavor. It should come as no shock that ArtPrize, then, takes full advantage of innovative technology and social media trends when it comes to executing and promoting the event.
Take
SCVNGR, for instance. What this location-based game and social media platform lacks in vowels, it makes up for in usability. While bearing similarities to apps like
Foursquare and
Gowalla, SCVNGR's goal involves earning points by completing challenges and treks.
The idea of using SCVNGR to help visitors explore ArtPrize came from a Google lunch, where
Experience Grand Rapids' Vice President of Marketing Janet Korn, was first introduced to SCVNGR. A subsequent event, the
Destination Marketing Associate International (DMIA)'s 2010 Annual Convention, gave participants the opportunity to go on a "trek."
SCVNGR approached Experience Grand Rapids' Interactive Web & Design Manager Andrea Robyns themselves. SCVNGR was interested in the website's "Social Lounge."
Rob McFeeley, who goes by the title of "Game Genie" at SCVNGR, came
to the city of Grand Rapids, and, working with Experience Grand Rapids,
helped choose locations based on the types of places SCVNGR felt their
demographic of users liked to go.
"I helped (McFeeley) discover Grand Rapids by walking through our very walkable city," Robyns said.
This played right into ArtPrize, according to Ian MacLurg, ArtPrize's social media analyst.
"One thing we really wanted to do last year that we weren't able to was use a geotagging platform of some sort, and Foursquare and Gowalla didn't necessarily seem to do what we wanted to do," MacLurg said. "SCVNGR provides a platform for a lot more action to be done."
So how do you use SCVNGR? The app runs on the iPhone or phones using the Android mobile operating system. Once you download the software and make a profile for yourself, you should be able to start seeing nearby venues. If you're within a 25-mile radius of Grand Rapids, the app displays a prompt alerting you to available treks located downtown.
"A trek is a series of challenges and each challenge leads to a specific place," MacLurg said. "You have to do a specific action to complete the challenge. The more treks you complete, the more experience you'll get with downtown Grand Rapids in viewing art and venues, and the difference events we've got going on."
Sometimes, challenges involve snapping a photograph, answering a question, scanning a QR code, bumping phones with another person to check in simultaneously or solving a riddle. In return, venues or businesses can provide special discounts or rewards for check-ins or challenges.
ArtPrize is offering it's own rewards.
"Beyond the experience itself of providing a new way to participate in ArtPrize, the idea is to give people an incentive to (use SCVNGR) by trying to win an iPad or a gift certificate to a downtown restaurant," MacLurg says.
Popular spots as well as "hidden gems" are featured, and challenges will encourage ArtPrize participants to wander to more far-reaching venues as opposed to staying at city center or in the Heartside.
Three separate treks will guide users first through the SCVNGR platform, then ArtPrize as a whole and, later, on a tour of the top ten pieces.
SCVNGR is not the only social media platform utilized by ArtPrize to help navigate through what some might consider an overwhelming amount of activity. After all, ArtPrize contains 1,713 registered artists at 192 venues, a staggering number for those invested in seeing it all.
"We're heavily involved in Facebook and Twitter, and we're also involved with Flickr and Youtube," MacLurg said.
Apart from keeping people informed, these tools also encourage people to engage in ArtPrize and share their individual experiences. Plans are in the works for another Flickr photo contest, as well as content from vloggers. Conversations that occur within Facebook and Twitter can provides tips, commentary, discussion and criticism in ways that face-to-face discussion cannot, or is limited to a smaller amount of real-time dialog. If a user stumbles across an interesting piece that lacks the visibility of the larger pieces, and uses Twitter, Facebook or SCVNGR to take a photo or post a tip, other visitors who aren't even acquainted with the aforementioned user become aware because they are accessing content related to ArtPrize. This is how a buzz occurs, but at a much faster rate than literal word of mouth. Speed is important in an event of this scope that occurs in such a limited timeframe, and feeling like an integral part of this large-scale event is crucial to ArtPrize as a whole.
"We try not to focus on the tools that we use, but the message behind it," MacLurg says. "One of the things that we say a lot in the office is, 'art is the focus of ArtPrize, but community is the main event.' Any tool that allows us to magnify or promote the community around the art that happens in the city is welcome in our book."
Or on your phone.
Another thing to watch out for: QR Codes. Meaning "Quick Response Code," a QR Code is a two-dimensional code that can be read by smartphones or mobile phones with cameras. Scanning a code results in a URL, text or other information. These codes will be popping up all over ArtPrize, as well as in Rapid Growth Media's own website. Some suggested applications for scanning QR Codes are Barcode (for Android) and i-nigma (for iPhone), according to Doug Lang of Interactive Mobile Marketing firm Red Pigeon.