We Are David Bailey

Background

When Samsung launched its range of NX Smart cameras, the market for compact system cameras was dominated by Pentax, Nikon and Panasonic.

The first challenge, then, was simply to get the new NX noticed. Only then could communications drive traffic to the appropriate retail listings.

Idea

What the new NX did was to put in the hands of amateur photographers everything they needed to take thoroughly professional shots.

The best-known professional photographer in the UK was David Bailey, a celebrity in his own right.  He had married several supermodels, was friends with rock stars and shot regularly for Vogue.

The idea, then, was to get David Bailey to endorse the new NX. Not the David Bailey, but as many other David Baileys as possible.

143 David Baileys from all walks of life (including IT managers, accountants, a train driver and a priest) were brought together at an event in London. Each was given a NX1000 and a black polo-neck, standard issue for all professional photographers. After some basic training they were released into the world to prove through their photography that anyone can shoot like a professional.

Their shots provided the material for a TV, press and outdoor campaign as well as the content for eight 20-second Masterclasses, dramatising how easy it was the use the NX.

A ‘We are David Bailey’ Facebook app provided a central hub for their photos via an online gallery as well as a place to find information about the Baileys and to explore the camera and its accessories. This was all underpinned by a social media strategy that tapped into a selection of targeted bloggers and reviewers.

Results

The campaign helped NX market share increase from 2.8% to 55%. 

There was a 600% increase in online consideration and sales of NX cameras grew by 2,365%.

The campaign helped drive demand to such an extent that that Amazon, Jessops and John Lewis all sold out.

By week 8, NX sales accounted for 50% of the UK compact system camera market.

The campaign reached three million people on Facebook and one million through Twitter.

The Masterclass videos racked up over a million views on YouTube.

150 David Baileys and a further 80 honorary David Baileys – 230 active brand advocates – continued to shoot, share, tweet and say good things about the NX well into 2013. 

Our Thoughts

We have a tendency to think that great ideas are always a little bit risky, requiring courage at the client end to buy them and stick with them. But, actually, that’s not true. A lot of great advertising ideas are just blindingly appropriate and this is one of them, an idea that feels absolutely right in every detail.

Of course, if the original Bailey hadn’t given his go-ahead then the idea would have died. But it is testimonial to the man’s greatness that he loved the idea of making photography more accessible to more people.

For the other 142 other Baileys, finally getting to meet the man who had given them some sort of vicarious identity must have been a release as much as anything.

That’s what makes this campaign so brilliant. The fact that it encompasses so many different stories but every one of them around photography and every one of them branded Samsung.