THE MONA LISA: THE THEFT THAT TURNED INTO A VIRAL MARKETING STRATEGY

Morning!

Let’s play a game… think of a famous painting?

No, seriously go on, just think of one.

Mona Lisa, right?

Today, the Mona Lisa is one of the most renowned pieces of art in the entire world. It’s talked about worldwide and is a household name across all 7 continents.

But it wasn’t always this way.

In fact, for its first 400 years of existence, the Mona Lisa was nothing more than another Renaissance painting.

Then, on August 21st 1911, the little-known painting was stolen from the Louvre in Paris and well…

It accidentally marketed itself to be the most famous painting on the planet.

Here’s how it happened:

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Breaking Down The Strategy

Let me start by giving you a very brief breakdown of the Mona Lisa’s history.

It’s said that the portrait was initially started in 1503 at the request of a Florentine businessman who wanted a portrait of his wife - Lisa Gherardini.

Da Vinci worked on the painting for 10 years but actually ended up dying before it was completed.

I’m no avid art collector, but apparently, the way Da Vinci painted was pretty revolutionary and the Mona Lisa was said to be one of his better pieces.

But at the time it was nothing more than that - a good Renaissance painting among the 1000+ others.

Over time though, the painting did start to gain “traction” in the art world.

An art expert wrote a biography on Da Vinci, which led to the King of France buying the Mona Lisa and the piece become part of the French Royal Collection.

Let’s skip the rest of this history lesson though. Long story short, the painting ended up being hung in the Louvre Museum in France.

But as you can see from the painting of the museum below… it was far from a stand-out piece.

In fact, you can barely even see it, I’ll have to add a close-up.

Okay, you get the point, it was known in the art world but it was far from a household name… YET.

Then on August 21st 1911, a man by the name of Vincenzo Peruggia stole the piece right off the wall and everything changed.

Well, it was actually a day later that it all changed because the Louvre didn’t notice it was missing at first (which goes to show just how insignificant it was).

But the story about the theft was picked up by the news and quickly spread worldwide.

Of course, the newspapers couldn’t just push a headline like ‘A portrait was stolen’ they had to spice things up a bit and make it sound exciting. So, overnight the Mona Lisa went from another piece hung on the wall of the Louvre to:

• "The Finest Portrait In World”

• “One of the World’s treasures”

• And a “Famous Masterpiece”

Over the next 2 years, hundreds of people would write about the Mona Lisa in newspapers and books.

Some would describe the painting for those who never got the opportunity to see it - these were often exaggerated descriptions claiming that Mona Lisa’s smile drove men mad.

As a man, looking at the smile below does not drive me mad - and I highly doubt it did anyone.

Others would write long detailed breakdowns of the Mona Lisa’s whereabouts.

And whilst all of this was happening thousands were flocking to the Louvre just to see the empty pegs where the Mona Lisa hung.

There was no way to Google “What does the Mona Lisa look like?” at the time, so all people had to go off was other people’s written descriptions.

It was all a mystery.

A 2-year mystery that might as well have been a 2-year ad campaign.

An ad campaign that was just getting started…

Because in December 1913 the painting was finally recovered and returned to the Louvre when Peruggia was caught trying to sell it to an Italian art dealer.

But by the time it got back on those famous hooks in the Louvre, it was a completely different painting.

It left a masterpiece but returned as something more than just art.

It was a story, a legend and one that was being talked about all around the world.

And because of that story, people flocked from all over the globe to see it. Which is when the painting’s second round of PR started.

For 2 years people had talked about how fabulous this painting was, “The best portrait in the world” they said. But when people finally got to lay their eyes on it a lot of them were pretty disappointed.

A large debate began. And honestly, it’s never stopped.

Which takes us to today, when people STILL flock from around the world to see the painting.

In fact, out of the 10.2 million yearly visitors to the Louvre, they say that 80% of them come solely to see the Mona Lisa.

That’s 8+ million people each year going to see the painting. Crazy.

But that’s enough art history today because what I really want to talk about is the marketing behind the paintings’ virality.

Because although the Mona Lisa grew viral completely by chance, I think there were 4 key “marketing factors” that came into play with its rise:

1) A Story

Humans love a good story. It’s the reason millions tune in to watch Love Island every year and it’s the reason The Sun is still in business.

Because humans need a good storyline to get involved in anything.

Think about any famous relationship…. let’s say Jay Z and Beyonce, they’re pretty famous, right?

But the peak of their fame came when there were cheating allegations and the whole world was trying to depict the mysterious woman that Beyonce wrote a whole album about.

Overnight Jay Z and Beyonce went from singers to people who were talked about in homes all over the world.

The same thing happened with the Mona Lisa.

If you can tie a storyline (especially one with a mystery behind it) to something or anything, you will grab people’s attention - humans are just wired that way.

You see boxers and MMA fighters do this all of the time. (Read my article on the UFC’s storytelling here)

2) Sheep Snowball

From a marketing standpoint, the big problem the Mona Lisa had prior to it’s theft was that there was no demand to go and see it.

But as the story started doing its rounds in the newspapers the “sheep snowball” began to happen.

People were hearing it was the greatest painting ever and the sheepish nature of humans kicked in and they all started wanting to see it.

“If [so and so] says it’s amazing it must be, so I need to go and see it too!”

It’s a classic tactic they still use to push new films today. Once you can get people thinking everyone else thinks it’s amazing, good ole FOMO will kick in real quick.

3) Supply Shock

Whilst missing, everyone was hearing about the Mona Lisa, but physically no one could see it.

In fact, most people didn’t even know what it looked like, they were just imagining it from descriptions they’d read.

It was like the first-ever supply shock for a painting - and it worked.

Imagine a newspaper headline that read “Pretty Little Thing sell out their whole new line within the first 3 minutes”.

No matter what that line was, I guarantee the demand would go up once the headline went live.

It’s the exact same concept here.

4) Playing On The Fence

My favourite part of all this is how the Mona Lisa is still so talked about today. Mostly because of the fact it is so average (sorry if you’re an art fan).

Okay maybe average is a little harsh, but I’m definitely comfortable saying it’s unspectacular to the common eye. Yet, it’s that average look that fact leads to millions of people talking about the painting after they see it.

Some go home and tell everyone how spectacular it is.

Others go home and tell everyone it’s a waste of time to go and see.

Either way, it gets people talking about it, and it just goes to show how powerful positioning things on the fence is.

Because it’s the fact the Mona Lisa sits on that fence that leads to scenes like this 100+ years after the initial theft:

That photo is honestly crazy.

But what’s even crazier, is the fact the Mona Lisa accidentally grew viral all because an Italian man stole it to smuggle it to Italy.

Who would’ve known right?

Anyway, that’s all from me today, make sure to drop your feedback below - it lets me know if you enjoyed (or hated) it.

Until next time.

— Niall

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This has been a breakdown of Mona Lisa’s accidental marketing strategy. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy in your business!

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