Until recently, portraiture and self-portraiture belonged to the domain of art. But as photo-sharing social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat become ubiquitous, the “selfie” has turned into the ultimate expression of vanity in the digital age.

Huawei knows about artistic portraiture, because of our partnership with Leica Camera. We also know the importance of the selfie to our consumers. So we partnered with the prestigious Saatchi Gallery, a leader in contemporary art, to explore and share the notion of self-portraiture in the present time.

Together, Huawei and the Saatchi Gallery decided to challenge the notion that selfies are to be derided. We created a very large-scale exhibition called “From Selfie to Self Expression”. We collectively commissioned a series of high-profile photographers and artists to co-create a series of what they saw as self-expression.

More than a sponsorship, this is a true collective collaboration between Huawei and the Saatchi Gallery.

We engaged Huawei’s business partners, the media, public, art world and our own employees throughout January-March 2017 via:

1. a global PR campaign

2. social media across all of Huawei and Saatchi channels

3. a global competition to generate content for the exhibition

4. the pop-up exhibition at MWC

5. working with Saatchi-recommended photographers to create new works on the Huawei P10.

We held three PR launch events on 30th March 2017:

1. a breakfast preview for influential lifestyle media from the UK, Canada, South Africa, UAE, Spain and Italy

2. a lunch preview for influential tech press, and

3. an afternoon event.

Over 500 media took part throughout the day.

In the evening of 30th March 2017, we held our Gallery Private View. Nearly 3000 guests attended. The highest-attended Saatchi Gallery Private View yet, guests included top media, celebrities, and the most influential figures on the global art scene.

Our campaign needed to be international, credible, highly engaging, showcase the Huawei P10, and build awareness and credibility of the Huawei brand to help it achieve its growth ambitions. Our global competition, which challenged our audience to submit their most creative portraiture for a chance to be featured in the exhibition competition, saw 14,090 entries from 113 countries. We picked 10 winners worldwide – all of whom attended the exhibition opening as our guest, and received a Huawei P10 as well as their work on show in the Saatchi Gallery.

Our social media campaign, which ran from end January 2017 and is ongoing, has generated 363,000 impressions and 3,200 engagements.

Our PR campaign, which also ran from end January 2017 and is ongoing, has generated 702 article mentions with a reach of 1.2 billion. The exhibition was featured on the BBC and Sky News, in Vogue UK and Harper’s Bazaar Spain, in every UK national newspaper, and in online publications from around the world. Footfall to the Gallery is up 20% (nearly 5,500) on the Saatchi Gallery’s usual attendance (4,500). Galleries from Russia, Australia and China have expressed interest in taking the exhibition – but first, the Saatchi Gallery will extend the run of their own exhibition (which was originally planned to be two months, but will now be three months). “From Selfie to Self Expression” exhibition has become one of the Saatchi Gallery’s flagship events in 2017, celebrating and generating art and debate for the digital age.