The creative idea was to shoot a series of original stories throughout Europe that were connected by shared themes and emotions. The stories had to be sourced by our photographers and they had to be motivated to tell these stories. Our photographers were told which countries we wanted to cover but beyond that, they weren't given any further direction. "Pursuit of the Shot" explored communities in transition; regions that suffer from high unemployment, lack of investment or are vulnerable to natural disaster. We were interested to understand how people think and behave in such apparent adversity. We focused on telling the stories of people who showed great moments of creativity, ambition and hope. We wanted to explore the challenge of living and being successful in these regions. At a time of great uncertainty across Europe, we found people who are resilient, resourceful and above all, optimistic.

We have delivered 6 stories to date. Each story was published to Wider Image first and then in local language on Canon's own sites. Each story was supported by a short film from the Reuters photographer discussing the motivations and challenges behind their work. Each story had a live event component where our images were projected onto buildings and street furniture in major European cities. Our photographers also conducted a walking tour of these locations and discussed their story with the general public, tourists and amateur photographers. The stories generated interest on Social but most significantly, they were picked up and published by other news organisations around the world. This is "money can't buy" moment was only possible due to PR distribution via the Reuters Media Express platform. We also hosted a pop - up gallery in London to exhibit this work. The first story was published in Sep 2016.

Media Outputs:

6x Wider Image photo stories from six different locations. Each story had up to 30 original images each. 6x short films from the Reuters photograper behind the story. 6x live event in major European cities. We drove 2m visitors from Reuters Wider Image to the local Canon sites in respective markets. The content was published in local language on each of these sites. Our live events were attended by more than 200,000 people in person. To date, these stories have been picked up and published by more than 300 publishers around the world including: The Boston Globe, The Guardian, El Pais, China Daily News, CNN and the New York Daily Post. This has been calculated to have an EAV in excess of £1m.

Target Audience Outcomes:

Our research shows how well this was received:

96% of respondents said "that the Reuters/Canon partnership was a good fit".

84% said "it felt relevant to our society and the times we live in".

80% agreed that they would like to see similar projects.

70% said "it made me see Canon in a different, more positive light"

"We needed a partner who could deliver photojournalism of the very highest quality and the Wider Image team certainly didn't disappoint. We were looking for stories that could inspire photography; images that disrupt perceptions and challenge norms. The combination of Reuters journalism and Canon technology has enabled us to tell the stories that matter".

Lee Bonniface: Marketing Director, Canon Europe