Nikon Gives Cameras to Consumers With #IAmGenerationImage
Nikon gave several people one of its cameras to document their passions. Executed by McCann Erickson, the campaign also allows consumers to contribute their pictures with a hashtag.
Nikon gave several people one of its cameras to document their passions. Executed by McCann Erickson, the campaign also allows consumers to contribute their pictures with a hashtag.
Nikon has unveiled its newest campaign, aimed at a generation of Millennial consumers who take a lot of photos. With the campaign, dubbed “I Am Generation Image,” the Japanese camera company is giving its consumers a camera to document their passion.
The idea behind the integrated campaign – which was executed by McCann Erickson and launched Thursday – is to showcase the Nikon D750’s quality and versatility through the broad spectrum of photos and videos it shot. Generation Image has so far included an urban cyclist, a homeless advocate, a pair of comediennes, a pair of dads, a vegan chef, and a family whose finances moved them to a much smaller place. Each participant had ownership of the camera for two weeks before passing it onto the next person.
“We looked for a range of people who aren’t professional photographers, unique individuals with various passions and interests who use images to make a statement about who they are,” says Larry Platt, executive creative director for McCann Erickson.
Through the spring, their photos will be on a central website, along with video intros. The site also has a portal aggregating users’ photos from Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Google+, Vimeo, and YouTube. To contribute, users just have to hashtag #IAmGenerationImage when posting pictures to their social platforms.
“We are aware of the fact that through digital photography and social media, people are communicating visually more than ever before,” Platt says. “People use photos and videos to express themselves and share what they love where they once used words. There’s an interesting notion of people speaking in images and at the same time, it’s never been harder for your images to stand out.”
Platt hopes the campaign will inspire users who want to take their photography to the next level. For Paul Johns, chief marketing officer at social media-based customer service cloud solution Conversocial, the campaign helps Nikon by showing and not telling.
“We don’t believe what brands tell us; we believe what other people tell us they experience with that brand,” Johns says. “I think the trend toward putting consumers at the center of the story is very powerful.”
A photographer himself, Johns points out that many Instagrammers hashtag the camera they use. This would give Nikon a boost on social media, regardless of the campaign’s social portal. Johns found that element of the campaign to be a pleasant surprise, given how much smartphones with Instagram have become the largest competitor to camera companies.
“I couldn’t tell you the difference between a Nikon and a Canon, in terms of picture quality, but their campaign is different than anything I have seen any camera company do,” he continues. “Kudos to the brand for putting customers in the story before their competitors, especially in such a crowded space.”
Homepage image via Shutterstock.