Beautify helped Zappos lead the way in experiential marketing through murals

Ten walls in ten cities bring the company's core values to vivid life.

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Mural in Los Angeles by Ruben Rojas and SEL for Zappos

Brand managers today know that mural advertising isn't just billboards at street level. But that wasn't always the case. I had the good fortune and pleasure to work with Zappos founder Tony Hsieh and team on one of the first large-scale experiential marketing campaigns done with murals.

I had already been beautifying urban walls for four years when I connected with Tony's team in 2016. As part of Zappos' Downtown Project, an effort to restore the culture and well-being of downtown Las Vegas, Tony wanted to extend urban beautification to ten cities total across the United States. Each city's mural would illustrate one of Zappos' ten core principles, a list well-known in some circles but unknown to most, including customers.

Instead of spelling out each principle in words, though, the murals would visually convey the concept. "Embrace and drive change" or "Pursue growth and learning" would be the visual message of a big, conspicuous painting. This is what experiential marketing through murals is about.

For the project, Zappos set out to use local artists, site specific to each project, with the help of the large national database that Beautify Earth already had.

This is the kind of project for which we founded Beautify. Our online platform removes the friction and uncertainties from the process, making it easy for Zappos to find and work with professional street artists. As both a muralist and a software product manager, I saw that Beautify could connect people who want great art with the professional artists who create it.

The people behind Zappos and Beautify both understand that bringing beauty to the community stimulates local economies, uplifts community spirit, and inspires the human soul. Beautify was chosen for this multi-city project based on our impactful global mission to eliminate urban blight.

We do so by empowering the world’s artists and educating property owners of the positive impact that art creates. Most of the world’s walls need this attention. We've been involved with more than 10,000 walls so far, thousands of them directly commissioned and managed through Beautify. Hopefully a million walls from now we’ll clearly see a happier, more inspired planet.

The 10 core values of Zappos which help to define their unique culture are listed below alongside their respective city & artist:

1. Deliver WOW Through Service – Miami / Angelino

2. Embrace and Drive Change – Baltimore / Cory Stowers

3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness – Austin / Jade DMZL

4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded – Los Angeles / David Gilmore

5. Pursue Growth and Learning – San Francisco / Amanda Lynn

6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication – Boston / Zach Nolin

7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit – Philadelphia / Chroma Dolls

8. Do More With Less – Chicago / Matthew Hoffman

9. Be Passionate and Determined – New York / Gaia

10. Be Humble – San Diego / Trek Kelly

Evan Meyer is a co-founder and the CEO of Beautify.