The creative idea was to elevate the 2016 PANTONE Color of the Year selection from a pop culture moment to a pop culture movement because color, like life, exists on a spectrum. The selection of two colors was a more accurate reflection of its true nature, as well as the embodiment of societal shifts around identity, sexuality, gender, and race, and a call for calm in an overly stimulated world. We analyzed 15 years of previous coverage to determine the PR strategy and researched Pantone’s audience of creatives to identify appropriate influencers and brands to align with to amplify the message. We also built a case for the color pairing, identifying examples of it in nature, fashion, design, media, pop culture, and technology. Once announced, influencers and consumers would be encouraged to share their love for #PANTONE Color of the Year on social channels to create a groundswell of online.

Before the announcement, Pantone briefed select journalists to ensure they understood the rationale for the PANTONE Color of the Year choice. Journalists were provided with visual assets created by Pantone’s creative agency. Pantone partnered with Instagram’s fashion team to engage Crewest Studio, a street artist collective, to create three public art displays in New York City, Los Angeles and Miami, which were unveiled on Pantone’s Instagram on launch day and showcased the harmony of Serenity and Rose Quartz. Pantone also tapped creators, like digital artist Micah Milner and famed pastry chef Dominique Ansel, to create custom PANTONE Color of the Year Instagram posts and leveraged Adobe’s photo editing app Aviary, to offer six free, Pantone-inspired image filters so people who connected with Pantone’s message could transform and share their own images, building a groundswell of PANTONE Color of the Year imagery online.

On launch day, PANTONE Color of the Year 2016 became a trending conversation on Facebook and Twitter, and #Pantone was the number one trending term on Instagram. Within two weeks, Pantone gained more than 60,000 Instagram followers— a 76% increase in follower growth, greater than the growth rate over the entire month following last year’s announcement.

Media coverage for the announcement broke all Color of the Year records, resulting in more than 290 placements and 1.3 billion impressions in less than 24 hours. A range of influential outlets covered the announcement and its important cultural message, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, NPR, GQ, WIRED, and Buzzfeed.

The announcement resulted in more than 2,000 media placements and 3.2 billion media impressions. More importantly, the PANTONE Color of the Year 2016 became a color snapshot of our culture rather than just a design and fashion story.