THE LAB

Bronze Spike

Case Film

Film

TitleTHE LAB
BrandCANON AUSTRALIA
Product / ServiceCANON CAMERA
CategoryA03. Online: Fiction & Non-Fiction
EntrantLEO BURNETT SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation LEO BURNETT SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Production THE POOL COLLECTIVE Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production 2 NYLON STUDIOS Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Stuart Welch Nylon Studios Sound Design
Grant McAloon Leo Burnett Executive Creative Director
Vince Lagana Leo Burnett Executive Creative Director
Chris Ireland The Pool Collective Director
Petrea Lambert The Pool Collective Producer
Cameron Gray The Pool Collective Producer
Kieran Ots Leo Burnett Creative Director
Dave Varney Leo Burnett Senior Art Director
Stuart Tobin Leo Burnett Art Director
Bjoern Ingenleuf Leo Burnett Copywriter
Adrian Jung Leo Burnett Agency Producer
Jonny Bucknall Leo Burnett Group Business Director
Laura Dowling Leo Burnett Senior Business Director
Laura Cervin Leo Burnett Business Manager
Lisa Burprich Leo Burnett Senior Brand & Communications Strategist
Emma de Teliga The Pool Collective Producer
Edward Copestick Freelance Editor
Jason McLean Canon Australia Director Consumer Imaging
Chris Macleod Canon Australia Manager Professional Marketing
Kate Guaran Canon Australia Senior Manager Consumer Marketing

The Campaign

To encourage photographers to rip up the rulebook of traditional photography and start discovering their inner creative voice we created ‘The Lab’ - a series of experiences and content designed to shift creative thinking behind the lens. Each experience was designed from the ground up to not only be truly inspirational for the photographers participating, but also to create a story that would inspire a wider audience. And while THE LAB was focused on photography, each experiment revealed a universal creative insight that appealed to a much broader audience: that our perception has a powerful impact on the images we capture, that surprising creative results can be found when we're forced to push past our most obvious ideas, and that even the most uninspiring situations and settings can hold unique creative potential when we approach them with an open mind.

Creative Execution

Implementation We recruited six photographers from our enthusiast audience for each experiment, without telling them what was to unfold on the day. These participants effectively became ambassadors for our brand, so offering them an authentic experience was a high priority. As such we used unobtrusive filming techniques to create content that would capture their reactions and responses, and celebrate the remarkable images they captured in extraordinary circumstances. We used niche targeting to seed the experiments to creative influencers. The content was then featured in a popular Australian creative blog, as well as promoted across Twitter and Facebook. Timeline The experiments were released episodically; Decoy was launched November 3, Evolution was launched on December 11, and Blank was launched on January 21. Placement Paid editorial support was provided on Lost at E Minor between 5th November – 15th November 2015, garnering 6,560 views. The video was also supported on Canon Australia’s YouTube channel, Facebook page and Twitter account.

To date, THE LAB has totalled more than 8.3 million views, with 160,000+ social engagements. 92% of views were embedded on external domains, a clear indication of its appeal to a broader creative audience as it was embedded on 3,300+ editorial sites and blogs. THE LAB appeared on news sites including the Daily Mail, Buzzfeed and Mashable; articles on photography sites including Shutterbug, PetaPixel, and MyModernMet; and in publications from Japan, France, Russia, Italy, and Brazil, showing that the content has universal appeal and reached a global audience – all achieved with minimal spend, with only 4% of views being the result of paid media. THE LAB shifted Canon’s role from a product manufacturer to a creative instigator, sparking debate and ultimately championing a more thought-provoking approach to photography.

One of the most common forms of content created by photography brands is online tutorials. Despite the fact that photography is undeniably a creative pursuit, these tutorials typically consist of technical demonstrations; telling people how to shoot rather than encouraging them to think for themselves. Canon saw an opportunity to create a completely different kind of tutorial video; one that avoids talking down to the photographer and aims to develop thinking and creativity more than technical ability.

Target Audience(consumer demographic/individuals/organisations) Our target audience was enthusiast photographers; those who have moved beyond point and shoot images and are engaged with photography as a personal passion. Relevance to platform There are countless online tutorials that focus on how to shoot and how gear works, but these rarely explore the creative side of photography. As a result most tutorials are in fact encouraging photographers to capture the same images, rather than developing their own originality. Approach We aimed to create a unique experience that photographers would talk about and share amongst themselves. Instead of telling them what to shoot or how to think, we created content that would get them thinking, talking about and debating the wider implications of their own photographic practices.

Links

Video URL