Background & Context:

Canon used to be a leader in professional cameras, known for its high-quality equipment. However, as the quality of smartphone photography increased, fewer consumers invested in cameras. This had various consequences:

1) More camera manufacturers started to target professionals.

2) More competitors fought for a shrinking pool of customers by launching products faster and more frequently.

3) Mirrorless (ML) cameras were introduced as a new alternative – a category that has grown incrementally over the last 10 years (“Ratio_DSLRvsML_Sales”).

Canon had become too comfortable in its established position, was late to the ML game, and as a result was pushed to the edge. The brand was lacking a clear point of differentiation and a true connection with its core audience, professional photographers.

The situation was dire. Canon had lost 29.15% volume share in four years ("MarketShare-ML-Camera_Bodies-prior") and with the category continuing to decline, Canon sales looked set to drop substantially in years to come, creating a major threat to the business.

Something had to change, fast.

We could not drop product prices and there was no point in trying to take on innovative smartphone competition. Canon already had a high level of distribution, so the job was left to communications to solve.

The challenge:

We were tasked with reconnecting with professional and enthusiastic photographers, developing a braver, bolder perception of Canon while creating a buzz around Canon’s new high spec equipment. We needed to execute within Canon’s overarching brand strategy “Live for the story” with the goal of making people trust the stories they saw but leveraging this in a Nordic context.

The solution:

To appeal to our discerning audience, we needed to go beyond a traditional campaign and go out on a limb. We set out to find a strong audience insight that would truly matter to professional photographers.

We live in a world where photos are often misinterpreted or misused, and photojournalists can’t do anything about this. But for photographers this issue puts their integrity on the line. Photographers don’t just snap images, they document reality. They tell the truth.

The insight: Some call them photographers. We call them truth-tellers.

This was our way in: Introducing Truthmark – a platform functioning like an “image bank of truth” that enables photographers to digitally attach the true story to their photographs and thereby reduce the misuse of photos worldwide.

Execution:

How Truthmark works:

1. Apply for a verified account (only for professional photographers)

2. Select and upload images or photo-series

3. Write the story behind the image, which is attached to the photo with an invisible watermark.

From here, the image cannot be used without permission, or shared with third-party accounts. It is stored with one purpose only: to protect the truth. For truth-hunters we created a separate universe, where anyone can drag-and-drop an image into our database to verify and learn about the truth behind the photograph.

Truthmark was launched July 23rd, 2020 across the Nordics with the website at the centre of the campaign.