Adobe Stock is now integrated in Creative Cloud, allowing you to search, edit and license stock footage without leaving your software. Core benefit: faster workflow. Meanwhile, stock footage suffers from a rather corny image, due to repetitive usage by designers lacking inspiration and Photoshop skills. Hence the question to create a campaign targeting the whole creative industry, that creates awareness and consideration for Adobe Stock and inspires to try and use.

We brought the most well known creative industry stereotype to life and created The Hovering Art Director Action Figure. Famous for having more ideas than any designer can keep up with, micromanaging and taking up time with last minute improvements. The very first vinyl toy on a designer’s desk that can give feedback on designs (even if you didn’t ask for it).

We created an online film called “The Hovering Art Director” (HAD). This short mockumentary portrays a designer being hovered over by a stereotype art director. With Adobe Stock and his Photoshop skills, he delivers an outstanding key visual for a new ginger beer brand.

The ad from the film not only became an advertisement for Adobe Stock. It was subject of a series of webinars showing how software, skills and Adobe Stock enable both speed and outstanding work.

To further push the HAD-phenomenon, we followed up with a designer toy, literally bringing the campaign to live. The collectible comes in Adobe-branded packaging and features an inbuilt speaker with 18 lines of pure wisdom. The action figure was sent to design departments world wide. To stimulate interaction, we launched a website that awards an action figure to the most original and outrageous HAD-quotes.