When Canon launched a new campaign and products which proposed a new way to shoot video – ‘Freecording’ – I developed a PR and activation campaign to bring the idea to life in the right target market.
The Challenge
How does a traditional Japanese technology brand (with great products!) embrace emotive, lifestyle-led communications and tap new audiences and markets for future growth?
The strategy
Let the products speak for themselves, but give your audience a way to connect and engage with them that’s relevant.
The Solution
I lead a bold campaign which created a multi‐faceted brand experience for an entirely new audience for Canon – young guys who loved adrenalin sports.
Recognising that Canon was widely used already within this community, we wanted to take it one step further. To do so, we partnered with one of Europe’s premier adrenalin sports events, Freestyle.ch to build a bespoke stand presence which included a professionally-made skate bowl for punters to use at their leisure. While at the bowl, friends and fellow boarders could film their peers pulling stunts and immediately upload and share the content to YouTube.
We also developed personal relationships with key personalities from the adrenalin sports community (skateboard, snowboard, and parkour champions), and together produced a range of online assets and content that allowed Canon to play in a space previously unavailable to them.
The effort opened up new possibilities for future communications for the brand, and successfully profiled Canon products to a traditionally ‘hard-to-get’ crowd.
