Nikon's big hands campaign draws attention

Challenge

Nikon launched its 'mirrorless' Nikon1 camera series and wished to generate curiosity and encourage action inspired by what the brand represents. The idea was to create moments of memory inspiring image capture, in major cities across Europe which are full of competing products vying for consumer attention.

Insight

Nikon had to coordinate a chain of events in different cities around Europe to create word of mouth offline. Nikon realised that if it is to stand out in a cluttered market, it needs to create a sense of community and buzz prior to product launch. The brand chose online media as its medium, considering the nature of sharp imagery that the brand wanted to stand for. The placement of hands holding a camera was the trigger for creativity. This was done through anonymous street art displays set up in eight destination cities in Europe, linking to a website labelled TheBigHands.com. The displays were of two white hands appearing to hold something which was missing. After the product launch, the new cameras were placed in 'the big hands', solving the mystery.

Solution

'The Big Hands' displays were set up in eight different countries and eight major European cities. Major tourist destination cities in Europe were chosen to ensure real life word of mouth was soon replicated with online word of mouth. The brand had to coordinate set up of the displays and capture real time images and video while simultaneously creating, updating and feeding video content online. A website was created for the campaign, feeding the imagery and video of the art installations.

Editorial placements in premium web properties were ensured to engage the appropriate audience and create interest and buzz online, directing traffic back to the campaign website where live updates of the installations were displayed. The marketing and production challenge was capturing and feeding appropriate graphics and video while simultaneously creating, editing, and sending online content to relevant partners during the few days the art installations were on display in the major cities

Results

The campaign was released in strategically selected cities and was clever in the fact that it mimicked real life positioning of hands holding a camera with displays big enough to create street buzz. Preview Networks utilised its established networks for the majority of the countries targeted in the campaign to ensure strategic alignment. A continual stream of content was available keeping the campaign distribution ready. Content distribution goals for Preview Networks was set to 56,000 guaranteed editorial views via five country networks including the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden. Campaign views were exceeded by 20% with overall views at 63,071 over a period of five days.