How Canon is keeping photography thriving as COVID keeps India indoors
The Canon EOS R System is built to redefine photography. Building on over three decades of continuous EOS innovation, the EOS R System is based around a pioneering lens mount which offers greater creative possibilities.
Canon has rolled out its new campaign – ‘Unlock’ – which focuses on the multitude of features that the EOS R System as a whole (Canon cameras & lenses) has to offer to photographers. Through their digital campaign, Canon plans to further spread the knowledge of photography by conducting Digital Masterclasses in all major languages by renowned photographers covering different genres of photography, filmmaking, editing, and post-production.
Also Read: Canon uses sound recognition technology to engage users
As part of Adgully’s TALKING INSIGHTS column, C Sukumaran, Director - Consumer System Products and Imaging Communication Products, Canon India, speaks at length about the Unlock campaign, as well as what the EOS R System has to offer to the photographers. He also spoke about the interesting ways that Canon is adopting to engage with their audience as they remain confined to their homes amid the pandemic.
What is the objective behind the new digital campaign – ‘UNLOCK’? What are you trying to communicate through this campaign and what is your end objective of the campaign for the Canon EOS R system?
The Canon EOS R System is built to redefine photography, and through our latest digital campaign – Unlock, we aim to create awareness regarding the numerous benefits offered by the EOS R system, built on over three decades of continuous EOS innovation. EOS R cameras are built for photographers and film makers who demand high-performance, a full-frame sensor and excellent ergonomics. The digital campaign is hence, titled ‘Unlock’, as with its full-frame mirrorless cameras and range of next-generation RF lenses, the EOS R System unlocks doors to innumerable creative possibilities for filmmakers and photographers.
With the integration of tradition and innovation, the RF lens mount is at the heart of the EOS R System. Its unmatched optical excellence enabling innovative full-frame lens designs, faster autofocus and high-speed communication between the camera and lens.
Professional photography is a very niche profession in India. With the pandemic having hit the nation, how are you motivating the photography community to engage with their profession?
Professional photography in India has witnessed a complete metamorphosis in the past few years and has grown into a full-fledged industry. Additionally, in India, the vast social-cultural milieu allows immense opportunities in professional photography space and hence, many people are opting for photography as a career option. With the pandemic coming into the picture, the digital landscape has become a key voice maker with the advent of OTT and splurge in the usage of social media giving rise to photo sharing, blogging and vlogging culture.
While the pandemic affected the outdoor activity, there is immense scope for photography even while staying indoors. To spread this message and keep photographers motivated, we have been extensively interacting with our audience via social media by announcing regular contests as well as organising informative live sessions with our EOS Ambassadors. To further spread the knowledge of photography, we have also held Digital Masterclasses in all major languages by renowned photographers covering different genres of photography, filmmaking, editing, and post-production.
Canon has created the country’s best photographers and videographers as part of your EOS Ambassador program. Can you elaborate more about this program and how is it benefiting the photographers, videographers and the brand?
Canon EOS Ambassador Program brings together industry experts across various genres like, wildlife, wedding, fashion, filmmakers, and these award-winning professional photographers are helping Canon India to spread the photo culture across country.
These ambassadors bring to the table unique first-hand user knowledge encouraging the community to adapt and support the art forms. While they help us with user insight, we enable them with the best technology for their art.
Through an array of workshops, seminars and webinars, our ambassadors have helped create educational content with over 350+ live interactions and 10,000+ social media posts till date which secured an astounding 2.5 million organic views.
The pandemic has brought in some behavioral changes. Have you noticed any shift in the behaviours of photographers? With restrictions in outdoor photography, how are photographers creatively expressing their visuals and images?
The lockdown has brought behavioral changes since people had to stay indoors to stay safe. Artists are using their art to keep their audience motivated during these tough times and hence, photographers have changed their way of creative expression since the outdoor activity was limited.
These changing consumption habits and OTT content has revolutionised the way content is created, diffused, streamed and consumed. The percentage of video traffic has increased greatly across all channels, which has made video blogging rise in popularity as a form of both entertainment and marketing. We introduced the latest EOS M50 Mark II camera specially to cater to online content creators, in addition to having a range of cinema cameras approved by Netflix to create OTT content, including the EOS C70, EOS C300 MARK III, EOS C500 MARK II and EOS C700.
New creative indoor photography themes have also emerged. With COVID-19 leading people to have a greater sense of appreciation and acknowledge real beauty in simpler things around them, they seem to have become far less interested in glamourised versions of reality. Photographers are focusing less on editing, makeup, and photoshop and more on telling the real stories of people – capturing real emotions.
Similarly, wedding photography is something that has remained constant despite the scale being reduced by the pandemic. Weddings are an integral part of every culture and the essence of capturing memories will always remain at the core of the celebrations.
Post this campaign is exposed and run in the media, what are the expectations set by you? Are you following any measurement process to check the effectiveness of the campaign?
The campaign has been designed to reach 3 sets of customers – Existing User based, Intenders, and Upgraders/ New customers. The objective of the campaign is to sustain our No.1 position in the category and to achieve 100% Lens Connect Ratio. We will be doing a post campaign evaluation to check the effectiveness of the campaign as it is part of hygiene which we maintain for each campaign we roll out in media.
What’s been your media strategy for this campaign? Since your audience is very niche, how did you go about planning your media?
Since consumption of video content is at an all-time high, we created the digital master film, ‘Unlock’, to capture the attention of our audience and make them understand the extensive capabilities of the EOS R System. This film also showcases breathtaking visuals shot on the EOS R System, giving a glimpse of the system’s capabilities. The media strategy for this campaign is very simple and clear. We took a very targeted approach where we have selected platform based on affinity and in-market audience.
Our media planning also included affinity building with audiences using key genre across social, programmatic ecosystem, and content partnership across wedding, travel, and lifestyle platforms.
For more updates & collaboration, connect us on :
Share
Facebook
YouTube
Tweet
Twitter
LinkedIn