Windows on Canal featuring Scrim to draw locals back to Canal Street
Situation
The Celebrate Canal! Coalition was founded in 2024 with the mission to revitalize one of New Orleans’s most iconic streets - Canal Street. Canal Street runs through the heart of downtown New Orleans and is the nation’s widest main street. Canal Street once evoked a sense of pride for New Orleans residents and was hailed as a grand destination for shopping, dining and entertainment. Canal Street has, over the decades, fallen into disarray. Over the years, the City Council and other local agencies have attempted to restore Canal Street to its former glory, but all attempts have fallen flat. This citizen-led coalition was created in 2024 and is dedicated to the revitalization of Canal Street as a historic, cultural and economic cornerstone of life in New Orleans. The coalition brings together a cross section of citizens, business owners and city leaders to restore Canal Street to attract visitors and locals alike, boost the economy and create a vibrant and bustling atmosphere reflective of the world-famous city of New Orleans.
The coalition was formed to restore Canal Street to a destination attraction for locals and tourists alike. In partnership with Where Y’Art Works, a New Orleans based arts consultant, the coalition brought beauty to Canal Street through elaborate exterior art installations at seven local Canal Street businesses including hotels, restaurants and retail locations. Gambel Communications worked with the Celebrate Canal! Coalition to develop an integrated marketing and public relations campaign that raised awareness of the art installations and encouraged locals to come back to Canal Street through media relations, paid media and community relations.
Strategy
Scrim, a beloved New Orleans runaway dog that made national headlines, became a symbol for the resilience of New Orleanians and a focal point for the artwork. Scrim was painted into every piece, and he served as a guide through the various flora and fauna native to the city. Gambel Communications and Where Y’Art Works strategized ways to bring Scrim to life throughout the activation, including having Scrim visit the art installations with his new owner and bringing in an iconic New Orleans voice to narrate his story.
The first objective identified was to establish a website and social media presence for the coalition. Gambel Communications worked closely with our web design partners and facilitated the revision process, ensuring it was user-friendly and thoroughly explained the mission of both Celebrate Canal! and the Windows on Canal project. To truly bring the art to life, Ivan Neville, a well-known voice in New Orleans, told the story of Scrim for visitors to follow along with by scanning QR codes at each business. The codes led to a webpage where Neville narrated the art from the perspective of Scrim and told users more about the artist behind the work and the business it was displayed on.
Gambel Communications secured an advertising partnership with The Times-Picayune and their website affiliate NOLA.com as a media sponsor for Windows on Canal and created a print and digital ad campaign that would raise awareness of the art installations and the micro-events - Children’s Scavenger Hunt and an Art and Architecture Tour. The Children’s Scavenger Hunt invited families to dive deeper into the art by finding Scrim hidden throughout the art pieces and the Art and Architecture Tour invited locals to learn more about the history of some of Canal Street’s most iconic buildings from two local historians on an open top bus tour.
Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts were created and a strategy devised for the first few months of content. To attract local social media influencers and media outlets to come to Canal Street and see the art for themselves, Gambel Communications created PR boxes with customized Scrim cookies, a copy of the press release and an invitation to join the coalition for an upcoming event on Canal Street. These boxes also served as media drops to draw attention to the coalition’s mission and were hand delivered to all major news outlets in the city.
Results
Overall, the integrated marketing campaign that Gambel created and executed on behalf of the Celebrate Canal! Coalition for the success of the Windows on Canal art installation exceeded the established goals and objectives. Gambel Communications aided the Celebrate Canal! Coalition in securing nearly 100 media mentions, reaching an estimated audience of more than 1.2 billion people. This included a front-page story in the Sunday edition of The Times-Picayune as well as multiple feature stories in business and lifestyle publications, more than a dozen community calendar listings promoting the micro-events and four broadcast stories encouraging the public to visit Canal Street and see the art installations. The Children’s Scavenger Hunt welcomed more than 50 families to Canal Street and the Art & Architecture tour sold out.
As a reflection of the success of the integrated marketing campaign, the Windows on Canal event was a success with the Downtown Development District reporting over 116,000 peak visitors and a daily average of 12,602 to the thoroughfare in Q2 2025. The New Orleans City Planning Committee, following the success of the event, agreed to revise their 2018 study of Canal Street, offering more helpful insights for the coalition to use moving forward.
Following the conclusion of Windows on Canal, Gambel Communications leveraged the momentum of the Windows on Canal Project and secured multiple local awards for the coalition’s founder and the coalition itself.
