Opening slide from the presentation announcing the campaign.
Andy Photo
Advertisement Campaign
Project Overview
Every year the Silicon Valley Business Journal hosts a competition for graphic design students called the Big Ad Challenge. Small groups of 3-4 students compete with a set budget and companion small business to create the most effective campaign possible for a set budget. Our team, Azur, was paired with the small business Andy Photo—the goal to enhance the photographers clientele and influence while also creating a unique and strong personal identity.
Main Requirements:
- Work within 25k budget
- Keep print deliverables 80% of the overall campaign rollout
- Finish with less than a 2 month deadline
- Create a distinct brand identity
- Determine an effective rollout method
- Design + present approach to the judges of the SVBJ
- Leverage Andy Photo’s photography
Role + Responsibilities
Create an effective advertising campaign within a short deadline, in a small group setting.
Primary Project Responsibilities:
- Determine Business Goals
- Conceptualize + Brainstorm
- Post-processing of Images
- Presentation Design
- Oral Presentation
- Layout Design
- Project Management/li>
Moodboard showing competitive product photography.
Research
With product photography being the main focus of the business, images were gathered that displayed the essence of the current market. These photos were then used as reference for Andy to take his own images, as well as giving the team inspiration for the final layouts.
Target Demographics
Upon meeting and discussing with the client, it was determined that the primary audience was business to business. This approach included small mom and pop shops that wanted to get product photography to sell their food/items, to tech companies pitching new ideas to investors. With such a wide demographic, it was decided early on to target many different verticals of the product market, including jewelry, food, beverages, and the aforementioned technology.
Exploration
Initially thumbnails and traditional sketches were created to quickly ideate with minimal resistance. Moving into comprehensives they became much higher fidelity, making use of stock photography for efficiency. The final ads were created with original photography taken by Andy, they featured easily recognizeable foreground objects as prominent hero pieces.
Post-Processing
Images that were received from the client went through extensive post processing in order to evelate their intrinsic qualities. Each photo had its own set of challenges, requiring a flexible approach and a good understanding of design and composition fundamentals.
Primary Challenges:
- Aspect ratio changed to fit ad size
- Background effects such as bokeh and gradients added
- Reflections created to increase visual interest
- Color correction to soften the image
A stylized view of the Missing Content advertisement campaign.
Solution
Missing Content, the name of the campaign created for Andy Photo, had a powerful and unique message. The client created images for other businesses to use to market their products, so it was decided to be important to distinguish the ads from regular ones seen for products. Due to this, the hero images in each advertisement were blanked out and filled with the text “Andy Photo Completes Your Picture.” This strong blank element immediately drew viewer attention because of the perceived “wrongness,” then solved the proposed question with the client as the answer.
This design was then propogated to eight variations of the ad, allowing the client to target multiple verticals, while design and color unity kept the campaign cohesive. The rotating ads also created an environment where viewers were unlikely to get fatigued of the design, maintaining interest.
Achievements
Best Overall—Big Ad Challenge 2019
After judging, the Andy Photo Missing Content campaign was chosen as Best Overall in the competition, allowing for the advertisement rollout to become a reality.
Special version of the Missing Content campaign for Biz of Pride 2019.
Reflection
Working as a small agency to create a marketing campaign from first meeting to print offered great insight into every step of the process. With greater understanding of the procedure, a higher level of collaborative sympathy was gained for operations outside the field of graphic design, allowing for more effective teamwork.
Key Takeaways:
- Newsprint and the unique challenges it proposes
- Campaign rollout and the “drum beat” approach
- Small businesses and their needs/requirements
- Budgets and getting the best “bang for the buck”
One of the advertisements as seen in the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Conclusion
Graphic design competitions permit participants to challenge themselves and work in environments they might not have before. Collaborating within a small group under a tight deadline allows for a dynamic setting, and increases soft skills and ability to deal with pressure. These skills would round out personal toolsets, as well as generating the experience to do even better the next time. It was also invaluable to gain the experience with working directly for a small business, arranging meetings, creating timelines, and project/expectation management. In the end the client Andy Photo was ecstatic with the results, and the campaign will continue to rollout until its conclusion in 2020.
