After a five-year project that was heavily criticized by Parisians, the Forum des Halles, “New Heart of Paris”, reopened on April, 6th, 2016. The City Hall decided to launch a campaign to communicate on the much-awaited inauguration, while the work was not yet finished.

We won the bid with a campaign based on a political approach and by playing with the canopy shape transformed into a smiley.

We brainstormed with the Communications Department’s team to find the right strategy in line with the richness of the project (in terms of audiences, cultural programming, registration in the city...). The process led us to a second avenue of work: creating a campaign aimed at 12-25 year olds informing them about the proposed offer. We launched a photo shoot playing on close-ups of Parisians shouting a strong slogan.

This route was considered too risky by the Paris City Hall, which wanted to highlight the architectural gesture. But how could we highlight the canopy when the site sheds were still in place, making it impossible to photograph? We proposed to work in two stages: a teaser that focused on a detail of the architecture and a “reveal” poster that took a step back and let Parisians discover “The New Heart of Paris” through a 3D image of the architecture.