The Challenge

Nikon’s Point-and-Click camera sales are falling rapidly as the optics in smartphones get better and better, making pocket sized cameras redundant. To understand how to proceed, Nikon should look at its currently healthy product line: the DSLRs and high-end mirror-less cameras.  What is it that these Nikon products offer that you can’t get on your smartphone? Cellphone photography is fundamentally different from the photography that you do with a higher-end camera.  Cellphone photos are about capturing the brief, shallow, and forgettable in a way that can be shared almost instantly, on services like Instagram, SnapChat, Facebook, and Twitter.  This leads to a sameness in people’s photos that directly contrasts with their own perceived sense of uniqueness.  The camera in a phone gives you the ability to snap little moments any time during the day, and the way you think about using them follows this thought. High-end cameras, on the other hand, remain about capturing the lasting moments in exquisite detail, with all of the incredible tools that such a purpose driven device provides. In essence, a semi-professional camera, like a Nikon DSLR, elicits a different way of thinking…

The Insight

Holding a camera makes you feel different and look at the world different, in a way that a camera-phone simply doesn’t.

The Idea

Don’t just take pictures…make art.

Sample Execution: Print Ads

Copywriting: Erik Frydenlund – Art Direction: Erik Frydenlund