CANON | EOS PHOTOCHAINS | 2010
Photography stopped being something you do alone / Canon "EOS PHOTOCHAINS"
In 2010, Canon Australia turned photography, a solo hobby, into a game that connects people. This campaign won the Grand Prix in the Media category at Cannes Lions.
The problem
At the time, Canon EOS was targeting everyone from beginners to professionals, but DSLR ads tended to get stuck explaining technical specs. They needed to make these intimidating-looking cameras feel more approachable.
The insight
What you need to take a great photo isn't technology, it's inspiration. They bet everything on that one idea. The discovery was that if you turn photography from something done alone into something passed from person to person, that act itself becomes a new kind of experience.
The idea
Someone takes a photo, then crops out an interesting detail from it and uploads it. That detail becomes the next person's photo assignment. This keeps going on and on, building a "chain" of photographers. Canon threw in the first photo and announced the project on TV and online, and the photos and photographers that emerged from the chain went straight onto billboards across the country.
What happened
Produced by Leo Burnett Sydney. An average of 94 photos came in per day, with over 20,000 photos collected from across Australia. Time spent on the site was four times the industry average. Canon EOS's market share grew to 54% (another source says 67%).
Afterthought
Back in 2010, when even Instagram was brand new, the sheer boldness of connecting photography and chains into something so tightly tied to the product itself is wild. The result wasn't an ad, it was something photographers genuinely wanted to be part of. Makes me want to start a photo chain with someone too.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2010
