Canon today announces the next steps in its ‘Creative Futures’ project in collaboration with The Drum. The project gives UK-based start-ups an opportunity to catapult their marketing with individualised print and the help of a team of industry experts. Having won the pitch to participate, startup Bower Collective will experience the power of a dedicated, customer-centric omnichannel campaign, backed by a multi-stakeholder agency collaboration, bridging print and digital channels. The team of industry experts supporting the campaign are Canon, The Drum, Nutshell Creative, The Strategic Mailing Partnership, Join the Dots, Herdify, Jicmail, Latcham, Royal Mail Marketreach and Autlay.
Bower Collective, a provider of natural household products in reusable packaging won the pitch to participate after a face-to-face presentation to Canon and The Drum. Its core business is a refill subscription service, so marketing efforts have been focused on driving new subscriber acquisition. The business’ mission to reduce plastic waste through reusable packaging, as well as its previous marketing campaigns and interest in customer-centric, omnichannel marketing impressed the judges.
Nick Torday, Co-Founder and CEO, Bower Collective, comments, "We were absolutely delighted to win the ‘Creative Futures’ prize. Not only do we get the opportunity to run a free prospecting campaign with a fantastic multi-stakeholder collaboration of agency and commercial partners, but we are also learning loads as a startup expanding our own marketing capabilities and expertise. The team at Canon, The Drum and the wider group have been very positive about Bower and our mission to eliminate plastic waste, and have brought that passion to bear in working with us on the planning and execution of the campaign."
The omnichannel marketing campaign is launching in May 2024, allowing for a test-and-learn environment across digital and print channels, with results being shared in late Summer 2024.
Cathy Bittner, Strategic Business Development Manager, Canon Europe, comments, “This project has really set a strong precedent on how we can work together as an industry in the future. By bringing together expert parties on data, insights, creativity, production and measurement from the beginning when building a new campaign from scratch, we can leverage our knowledge as an industry and the technology at our fingertips. We’ve already learnt a lot from the project and involved parties, from audience exploration and creative customisation to seamless production, and we’re excited to share more of our learnings soon.”
The ‘Creative Futures’ journey will be documented by The Drum and Canon and initial learnings and further details on the campaign and execution will be on show at an experiential display in the Printworks exhibit on Canon’s stand at drupa, Hall 8A.
Creative Futures is an industry-wide initiative driven by Canon to re-imagine communication and collaboration across the print supply chain and to deliver tangible results for brands. Canon and The Drum first collaborated on the ‘Class of 2021’ initiative, where they created a digital platform for students who missed their final year degree shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim was to give students a platform to showcase their art and to connect with the global creative community. In 2022, the initiative developed into the ‘Creative Futures’ project, where students and young creatives were invited to design an omnichannel marketing campaign plan, including print, for the youth charity YMCA.
To find out more about ‘Creative Futures’, visit: https://www.canon-europe.com/business/insights/articles/creative-futures-next-chapter/
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