To promote Adobe to college students, we needed to create a new form of entertainment that didn’t feel like a product of Madison Ave but was born directly from Hollywood. While college students have become their own creators of entertainment and their imagination is inspiring, their execution is a work in progress. We wanted to celebrate their imagination, while showing them what’s possible with the storytelling and executional craft of Hollywood. The result: an 11-minute short film about an influencer from the 19th century, written and directed by Zach Braff, starring Alicia Silverstone, Florence Pugh, Andy King, and Leslie David

Situation: Adobe Students is a segment of the Adobe brand that empowers students to think creatively and communicate expressively so they can turn ideas, born in the classroom, into college and career opportunities.

Brief/Objectives: Launch the “Anything is possible when you create” strategic platform in a big, non-traditional way, generating brand awareness and increasing Adobe Creative Cloud online subscriptions.

When you think about the creative process of a movie, the poster is typically the very last element created. What if we turned everything on its head and started with the poster? A poster made by a student, using Adobe Creative Cloud. That’s how the #MoviePosterMovie Contest was born, providing the chance for one student’s movie poster design to be turned into a real Hollywood short film, starring A-list actors.

Adobe is a brand well known to students already pursuing a career in the arts. While we were generating downloads related to students’ schoolwork needs, usage was low because students associated it with classwork. Adobe was losing out on the fun and potential of creativity that related to students’ personal interests. While there was other work being done to continue to promote Adobe as a functional tool, we needed an inspiring platform to engage students and celebrate what’s possible when you create.

Additional facts:

We chose a director who is popular with our audience and highly influential on social media. (Zach has 2.2MM+ followers on IG and Facebook.)

A celebrity-filled cast played a huge role in the promotion of the campaign. Florence Pugh, Alicia Silverstone, and Andy King all used their own social networks to share the film (over 1MM followers).

On November 1, 2018, we launched the contest with Zach Braff posting on his social channels, Adobe Students paid social (Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter), paid digital (video & display), and micro influencers, geared toward the Gen Z target.

From December 2018 to April 2, 2019, the campaign was maintained through paid social with engaging posts that turned the poster entries into data.

From over 1,000 contenders, Sam West, a student from Boston University, was picked as the winner. She was then flown from Boston to LA to watch her movie poster be turned into a real Hollywood.

On April 2, the short film “In the Time It Takes to Get There” was launched on Zach Braff’s social media channels and promoted by the lead members of the cast.

On April 7, paid social and digital media support the campaign.

On April 18, Sam had her exclusive premiere in Boston.

We exceeded our participation goals with over 1,000 contest submissions (10% above the goal). We also had a record number of apps downloaded and units purchased within the span of 30 days.

More than 12MM people were exposed to the campaign.

More than 1MM organic movie views were gained in the first 15 days.

Story picked up by the mainstream press, including CBS, The Late Late Show with James Corden, Variety, Bravo, E! Entertainment TV, and The Boston Globe, among others.