Worldwide COVID-19 stay-at-home orders had massively affected the printer industry, with office printing all but drying up. As a result, HP wanted to help boost home-printer sales. More specifically, since ink sales are critical to HP’s success, they wanted to encourage printer usage.

In short, they needed a way to get those stuck at home printing again.

As the pandemic spread across the globe, people found creative ways to support neighbors and essential workers, like banging pots during shift changes or putting teddy bears in their windows.

As the world’s biggest home-printing company, HP saw an opportunity. We decided to use the home printer to help turn their windows into a canvas for creativity.

So HP joined with over 40 world-renowned artists to create a gallery of printable posters and to help everyone fill their windows with hope.

Since we didn’t have a huge budget, we partnered with recognizable artists and utilize their large social followings to spread awareness.

Though it was a US campaign, we recognized that the pandemic was an international crisis. So we chose artists around the globe—such as Shepard Fairey (US), Laura Callaghan (UK), Brosmind (Spain), Noma Bar (Israel) and Kanae Sato (Japan)—and art was produced in multiple languages.

Artists would be producers and a primary media channel. In order to engage our diverse audience of families and have them volunteer their windows, we needed recognizable artists and a broad range of messages. That way, we could leverage each artist’s large social following as another media channel.

Even though it was a US campaign, the pandemic was an international crisis. So we partnered with artists around the globe—such as Shepard Fairey (US), Laura Callaghan (UK), Brosmind (Spain), Noma Bar (Israel) and Kanae Sato (Japan)— giving us access to a total of 9.25 million dedicated followers.

Then we let the art and the #WindowsOfHope hashtag take over. As more people printed and posted on their windows, more people noticed and found the art. As a result, we had people sharing art on windows all over the world (even though the campaign was mostly US focused).

The posters were revealed on each artist’s social channels (Instagram, Twitter and Facebook) in a coordinated rollout over three weeks. And all you needed to get one was a printer.

The first wave of artwork launched on April 1, 2020, supported by promoted posts on each social network. It was available to print until August 26, 2020.

Each poster was free to download at hp.com, letting anyone print from the safety of their home. And in a bold move, HP didn’t add any logos to the artwork—just the hashtag #WindowsOfHope so anyone who saw it could find the campaign online.

And since all the art galleries were closed, we created a massive five-story art exhibit on the streets of San Francisco, showcasing the art for everyone to see.

During the campaign HP’s online engagement was 93 percent (23 percent higher than their benchmark), and HP-website visits increased by 25 percent. Thanks in part to this campaign, printer sales from HP’s retailers have increased by 10% year-over-year.

Prior to the campaign, the #WindowsOfHope hashtag had almost no posts, and it now has thousands—on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The art collection was even published by the OFFF festival in The Choices We Make, a design book featuring over 100 artists and their contributions during the pandemic.

We especially engaged the art community, with several artists—including an illustrator from The Simpsons—reaching out to see if they could take part in future campaigns.

But most importantly, over 1 million pages of art were printed and put up in windows all over the world. As people were craving connection to the outside world, their printer helped them do that.