Canon DECOY
Canon Cameras
Issue 39 | June 2016
Agency
Leo Burnett Sydney
Creative Team
Executive Creative Directors Vince Lagana Grant MacAloon Creative Director Kieran Ots Senior Art Director Dave Varney Art Director Stuart Tobin Copywriter Bjoern Ingenleuf Group Business Director Jonny Bucknall
Production Team
Producer Adrian Jung Production Company The Pool Collective Director/Mentor Chris Ireland Executive Producer Cameron Gray Production Manager Petrea Lambert Producer Emma de Teliga Post Production Heckler Photographers Chris Meredith Jin Lim Lyndal Irons Kate Disher-Quill Franky Tsang Tristan Stefan Edouard
Other Credits
Senior Business Director Laura Dowling Business Manager Laura Cervin Senior Brand & Communications Strategist Lisa Burprich Canon Director, Canon Consumer Imaging at Canon Australia Jason McLean Manager, Professional Marketing Chris Macleod Senior Manager, Consumer Marketing Kate Guaran
Date
November 2015
Background
Photography was a popular and accessible way for people to express themselves creatively. And there was plenty of information available on how they could get the most from their cameras. The result was that, with a higher-end camera and a little bit of study, most people could reach an acceptable standard.
But when it came to growing creatively and developing their own styles, photographers have nowhere to turn.
Idea
Canon wanted to create an experience that would help more advanced photographers develop their creative skills, not their technical skills.
'The Lab' was a series of events and experiences, each mentored by a leading photographer and designed to help enthusiasts think differently about creativity.
In 'Decoy', six photographers from the Canon community were invited to a special portrait session. But each was told a different back-story about Michael, the person whose image they were about to capture – he was a self-made millionaire, he was a Bondi life guard, he was an ex-prisoner, he was a psychic and so on.
Results
'The Lab', and especially 'Decoy' resonated. 'Decoy' was viewed over 5 million times, with only a fifth of views on YouTube, a measure of its virality and appeal to a broader creative audience.
The content was shared over 8,000 times and was picked up by top reaching blogging platforms and news aggregators such as Reddit, Mashable, The Daily Mail and Petapixel.
With over 17,000 comments and engagements, this video sparked the beginning of a relationship with new followers, increasing Canon's Twitter followers by 2% and YouTube subscribers by 1%, proving that this content sparked a wide-spread conversation about creative photography.
Our Thoughts
Proper photographers will probably shoot me for this, but I get the sense that, in the same way the functionality of Audis and BMWs is similar, so it is for camera equipment.
The secret then for the likes of Canon is to walk in the shoes of its customers, to prove that it really understands how they think, and their hopes and fears. It needs to get to what really drives the higher-end purchasers of its gear.
And I think it's achieved a real insight here: that most people can become proficient in terms of technique, but it is creativity that really makes the difference. And creativity is a state of mind, not an encyclopaedic knowledge of the manual.
I love the way 'Decoy' pulls the photographers in, and then when Michael is revealed to be not who they thought, their expectations are turned upside down.
In tone and feel, the set-up of 'Decoy' is reminiscent of Dove's Real Beauty police artist sketches, but it's still a terrific idea and very much a case of Canon giving something back to its community.