Canadian Business Magazine
February 15, 2010
Anytime Lady Gaga is in the house, you can be sure of a spectacle.
When she stepped onto a stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las
Vegas in early January, the reigning queen of pop and preposterous
fashion didn’t disappoint — the sprawling sun hat the diva wore turned
out to be made entirely of her own hair. But behind the glitz was
perhaps an even more astonishing revelation. Lady Gaga has signed on to
be the creative director at Polaroid, a company that not too long ago
had been relegated to the dead brand scrap heap.
The past
decade was a hellish one for Polaroid. The company that invented and
popularized instant photography has gone bankrupt twice since 2001.
Polaroid’s former owner turned out to be a multi-billion-dollar Ponzi
fraudster. Then, with the phenomenal popularity of digital cameras
obliterating demand for traditional film, the company stopped
manufacturing instant cameras and film altogether.
But now
Polaroid is back. The company is churning out new digital products at a
feverish pace.
Polaroid is even getting back into the field of analog
photography by re-releasing some of its classic instant cameras. Most
important of all, Polaroid is enjoying immense buzz among artists in
ways it never has before. Just this past weekend, thousands turned out
for a gallery exhibit in Santa Monica featuring more than 1,850
Polaroid images by professional and amateur artists from around the
world. “People were paying their respects to a wonderful medium,” says
organizer Kevin Staniec.
This remarkable revival is all
thanks to a unique combination of grassroots enthusiasm and the
marketing savvy of private equity investors, including Toronto-based
Hilco Consumer Capital, which bought the company last year.
One
reason for the intensity of the movement is nostalgia. Many people who
grew up snapping photos of friends and family, then shaking the print
to help it dry, still have their cameras. The company estimates there
are nearly one billion functioning Polaroid cameras out there.
After Hilco teamed up with
Gordon Bros. of Boston to buy Polaroid for US$67 million last year, the
plan was to sell a whole slate of new products, including digital and
video cameras, home entertainment systems and even glasses and goggles
under the Polaroid name. That’s still going ahead, and as creative
director, Lady Gaga’s Haus of Gaga design team will play a role in
shaping the look of new products.
It’s unlikely this hybrid of grassroots and high finance will
bring Polaroid back to its glory days. But both sides are hoping
there’s enough of a demand for all things Polaroid to satisfy everyone.
