Mother New York's Digital DIY for CB2

Mother New York launched the first-ever brand campaign for American home furnishings company CB2 last week by inviting consumers to decide on the interior décor and design of a real New York apartment building.

The unique execution saw fans of the retailer and furnishings company taking to the internet to choose the design, style and furnishings of the Union Square-based pad, including the dining room, office, bedroom, living room and rooftop areas.

To aid and assist the online effort, which unfolded in real time and was hosted on Pinterest, industry experts were drafted in to aid and assist the process which was carried out between 7-11 May.

The talented team of designers who took part included Athena Calderone (EyeSwoon), Ross Cassidy (Bravo’s Million Dollar Decorators), Caitlin Flemming (Sacramento Street), Justina Blakeney and Daniel Bear Hunley. Each had one day to engage their Pinterest following and the results for each room can now be seen at this dedicated microsite.

The final apartment features an eclectic mix of CB2 product and vintage, one-of-a-kind offerings, with each room capturing the aesthetic of the individual designers.

Below, Mother’s New York creative team talks about what went into the operation and how it all came together.

Where did the idea come from to execute the plan?

APT CB2 started with a simple brief from our client: create a progressive idea for the company’s first-ever brand awareness campaign. The programme needed to express the values of CB2's recently evolved brand platform, Modern Together. Modern Together is all about city living, experimentation, collaboration and promoting creative dialogue.

We originally imagined something really fun that had to do with making the world's first crowd-designed apartment with as many people as possible. Capturing the immense creative inspiration that lives online and translating that to the real world was when the idea became special.

How did you decide that Pinterest was the best social platform to stimulate and house the campaign?

There is an abundance of design passion on Pinterest. We felt that channeling the creative energy that lives there into a real world apartment would be a project that people would love to be a part of – it's something that's never been done before!

How did you find/select the talent involved?

The largest talent pool for APT CB2 was all the folks who cast their votes during our five days. For the specific designers assigned to each room, we looked for a diverse group of people that each had a unique design aesthetic - we wanted to make sure all five rooms didn't end up looking too similar. We also tried to find Pinners who were from different parts of the country and had large, excitable communities on Pinterest.

And what about the apartment? Was it hard to find the right location?

Yes. We had to pool our entire team's collective NYC real estate karma to land the place. We love that the apartment is a gorgeous space in a dynamic neighbourhood but it's also a perfectly neutral backdrop to all the awesome furniture and décor involved.

What challenges do you anticipate in terms of migrating the ideas on the social platform to the real apartments?

The translation from digital to the physical world comes with a lot of planning. And because there's an in-the-moment aspect to the entire week, there were many variables that we had to anticipate. On our live set, the experience team talent – photographers, DP, digital production, graphic designers and social media managers – all had to work together hour by hour. Our turnaround times are extremely fast in order to send out content instantly on multiple platforms including the campaign site, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Anything else relevant you’d like to add?

It's been a total joy for us to help CB2 bring this idea to life - we feel like we achieved something that's never been done before and in a manner that could only work for CB2.