Marcel Sydney and Tiger Beer shows New York City what ‘Made in Asia’ really means with Chinatown’s most exclusive discount store
New York’s Canal Street is world-renowned for its dollar discount stores, filled floor to ceiling with cheaply made Asian clichés and counterfeit goods.
To celebrate the true craft and creativity of its origins – the streets of Asia – Tiger Beer and Marcel Sydney have repurposed a Canal Street discount store and turned it into a stunning showcase of the best Asian art, fashion, technology and design.
The store, created by Marcel, produced by Will O’Rourke and designed by James Dive of The Glue Society, was built in just 2 weeks and featured a stunning 118 square meter glass floor filled with stereotypical products sourced from Canal Street itself; a powerful counterpoint to the objects above it.
The Tiger Trading Co opened on June 6-9 and was by far the most exclusive Asian discount store New York’s Chinatown has ever seen.
It’s purpose: help New Yorkers discover that made-in-Asia means much more than inexpensive goods and fakes, and prove that Asia is a world leader in design, fashion, technology and creativity.
Filled with over 700 products, every item in the Tiger Trading Co was sourced from some of the best artists in Asia, including Felix Tai from Pomch, Douglas Young from Goods of Desire and Kelly Lim of Kllylrck.
And anyone could get access by simply presenting a Tiger Beer coaster from one of several nearby bars.
With queues stretching around the block, and people camping out for up to 12 hours, the store sold out just one hour after opening every night.
Says Scott Huebscher, ECD of Marcel Sydney: “Tiger is a premium beer. It’s an authentic, Asian original. But “made in Asia” carries a lot of negative baggage in the US. For our first NY launch, we figured, why not tackle the elephant in the room head on?”
“The design decision to place cheap, clichéd goods underfoot was key,” Dive says. “To see what real Asian design is, you literally had to walk over what Asian design isn’t.”
As they browsed the best Asia had to offer and picked an item of Asian creativity for themselves, patrons could sample ice-cold Tiger Beer and taste authentic street food by a Taiwanese chef and streetfood hawker chef flown in from Singapore.
“New York has the largest Asian population outside of Asia, but most people here don’t see past the cheap goods in Chinatown,” says Mie-Leng Wong, global brand ambassador at Tiger Beer. “As the number one premium beer in Asia, we wanted to give New Yorkers an unexpected way to explore what Asian quality and creativity is all about. So we’ve invited them to explore and discover the best in contemporary Asia for themselves and reset their perceptions.”
Agency: Marcel Sydney
Production Company: Will O’Rourke
Design/Curator and Project Director: The Glue Society’s James Dive
MD/ Executive Producer: Michael Ritchie
Executive Producer/ Head of Projects: Josh Mullens
Producer: Jasmin Helliar
Curator/Designer: Silvana Azzi Heras
Production Designer: Thomas Ambrose
Post Production: Heckler
Public Relations: c/o Chan
Media: Starcom MediaVest
Client: Tiger Beer
10 Comments
So the messaging gets a bit lost for me – I’m walking over truly Asian things so I can somehow appreciate the up-market designer pieces on the walls that feel much more like Western things.
That’s sick.
Looks good, but why?
Because just doing ads was too lame?
Can’t wait to see the massive uplift in sales after this multi-national, multi-media, multi-channel, multi-miilion baht sales drive.
I’m estimating at least two more bottles a year.
What utter, utter wank.
Nice but don’t see the point.
The point was probably a junket to New York.
Wtf did i just watch? A whole lot of nuthin’
You’re insight is either way out of date or confusing:
“made in Asia” carries a lot of negative baggage in the US’.
OR
“To see what real Asian design is, you literally had to walk over what Asian design isn’t.”
So which one is it, Asian Design or Made in Asia?
All those iphones on sale in the Apple store just a few blocks away?
Made in Asia.
Samsung, Hyundai cars, or pretty much any electronic gadget you van think of,
Made in Asia.
You’re confusing badly made rip-off black market good with originals. Which is a totally different idea.
some of the worst ad wank I’ve seen for a while.
How does any of this sell more beer? Hipsters get out in the real world. You have no business representing brands. Marcel kiss your account good bye.