Untapping Digital Street Art’s Endless Potential for Brands

“Endless untapped potential.”

Rogier Vijverberg is speaking to me about digital street art, a relatively new development in social media in which a currently fairly small group of creators have begun infusing their own POV videos with artistic special effects, turning the streets into a canvas for their digital art. It lives on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube feeds and expensive, unattainable goggles are not needed to consume it. 

In fact, this emerging art form doesn’t yet even have an established name. ‘Digital street art’ is what Rogier, chief creative hero at agency Superheroes, prefers to call it. Some refer to it as FOOH - ‘faux-out-of-home’. But, to Rogier, that is too limiting as it makes it seem to be confined to traditional out-of-home. Others refer to it as CGI ads, which as a term is too broad since it could also refer to so many other traditional ads. 

“We prefer to call it digital street art since it lives on our streets,” says Rogier. “The art form also stems from young creators breaking the rules with videos that previously were only limited to professional VFX studios. The world is their canvas, literally.”

So excited by digital street art - and its potential for brands - is Rogier that he and the SuperHeroes team recently launched JIMMY, a collective of digital street artists that it has recruited to bring new life to advertising across social channels. JIMMY artists will work for brands and companies looking to create novel marketing experiences. 

“We believe it’s time for new forms of creativity to emerge on social platforms, assisted by advancements in tech,” says Rogier. “Smartphone video quality, video mapping, render times and 3D design tools have improved so much that it’s now possible to bring almost any idea to life. It’s an endless platform for creativity, and we’re helping to alert the world to it.”

Given its emerging status, there are limited artists excelling in digital street art. JIMMY artists include @hati.hati.mas, @Shanef 3d , @marblemannequin, @mreGFX, @shutterauthority, @3Dfiti, @djbehar and @camylbuena. It’s a global collective, with creatives based in the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, India and Australia, and counting. Some of them are well established with millions of followers while others are up-and-comers that have broken through via a mentorship programme that SuperHeroes developed with its client Lenovo Yoga. 

SuperHeroes began working in digital street art with computer manufacturer Lenovo Yoga around one-and-a-half years ago. “VFX and 3D are domains that Windows based devices excel in,” says Rogier. “It’s a natural playground for a premium, powerful laptop series.” So, SuperHeroes doubled down on it with an always-on programme with monthly themes and challenges for digital creators, and publisher collaborations such as with It’s Nice That. 

One of the objectives of the campaign was to rejuvenate the brand with ‘gen create’, which Rogier sees as the next generation of makers and creatives, who grew up with the internet and social media, and are using technology to create and innovate. And it’s working. “Their brand trackers are showing amazing results, not just in terms of brand awareness and consideration, but also in sales. The work is certainly getting noticed a lot. In press and award shows, but also by young creatives themselves. We’ve also started setting up mentorship programmes and there’s more educational initiatives coming up.

“You’ve got to get creative to earn or deserve people’s attention,” adds Rogier. “And getting creative is what we’re doing.”

Rogier cites two recent examples of branded digital street art from Maybelline and Jacquemus, after which he saw people remark that it’s just a trend or hype that will soon pass by. “We believe the opposite is true. 1) With street life being the canvas, we have an unlimited array of settings to apply our creative to all around the world. 2) Store openings, product launches, streaming series highlights, fashion drops, brand activations, collabs, art shows: the moments to bring to life in digital street art are endless. 3) It’s such a young medium, we’ve only just begun.”

When it comes to considering a project involving digital street art, there are a few key elements that Rogier believes clients should keep in mind. Firstly, the render times of digital art are extensive, so the projects need a different kind of preparation. For example, with JIMMY they are spending a lot of time detailing and designing work to limit time-consuming feedback rounds. Rogier also stresses the importance of storytelling and surprise, so that the work isn’t just captivating for the sake of it, but has a clear message. Finally, he believes that it’s possible to create things that would otherwise be impossible or too expensive via more traditional means because digital street art doesn’t require large production crews of green screen studios. 

On top of its work with Lenovo Yoga, JIMMY just launched a project for a recent Fenty x Puma collaboration (above), which it worked on closely with creative agency Prodject. It involved giant soccer balls in New York, Paris, Shanghai, London and Barbados, plus a physical installation under the High Line. A new project for jewellery brand Astrid & Miyu used virtual snowglobes to showcase its iconic advent calendars in London, New York and Edinburgh (below). There are around 10 more projects currently in the works, ranging from new product launches, holiday gifting, movies, sporting events, and more.

“I believe it’s going to be a super popular creative category, in which we ‘ain’t seen nothing yet’,” says Rogier. “There’s so much to explore, it’s endless untapped potential. 

“In the bigger picture I believe that augmented reality/mixed reality and digital street art will get more important in the next few years. With developments in AI, the introduction of devices such as the Meta Quest 3 and the Apple Vision Pro, and new features in Snap, TikTok, Instagram, and tools like Google’s ARCore there will be so much innovation. 

“Visual storytelling will soon be a category like out-of-home, or retail media. To brands, I would say: start tinkering.”