Title	CANON GIG APP
Brand	CANON
Product/Service	CANON DSLR
Category	A02. Creative Innovation (incl. business solutions in association with a brand or creative campaign)
Entrant Company	UNCLE GREY Copenhagen, DENMARK
Advertising Agency	UNCLE GREY Copenhagen, DENMARK
Production Company	MEDIAMONKS Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
Morten Noermolle	Canon	Nordic Marketing Director
Jimmy Blom	Unclegrey	Executive Creative Director
Lars Samuelsen	Unclegrey	Chief Strategy Officer/Head Of Digital
Rasmus Veggerby	Unclegrey	Art Director
Carl Angelo	Unclegrey	Art Director
Mathias Nielsen	Unclegrey	Junior Creative
Karsten L. Kirkegaard	Unclegrey	Digital Director
Alexandra Roende Thielke	Unclegrey	Account Executive
Wesley Ter Haar	Mediamonks	Chief Operating Officer
Quinten Beek	Mediamonks	Executive Producer
Xander Amo	Mediamonks	Senior Producer
Richard Nieuwenhuis	Mediamonks	Technical Director
Jeroen Van Der Meer	Mediamonks	Executive Creative Director
Nicolas Molien	Mediamonks	Creative
Arthur Dam	Mediamonks	Senior Creative Technologist
Michiel Brinkers	Mediamonks	Senior Developer
Peter Gerdes	Mediamonks	Lead Mobil Developer

The Brief

The Problem Canon is facing a step decline in the sales of their DSLR cameras. Research has identified that this decline is driving by a lack of adoption by young and tech savvy consumers that has grown up in a world where photography is something that is practiced using your smartphone. The Challenge Find an engaging and relevant way to illustrate the emotional value of great quality photographies. Do this without directly confronting or criticizing the smartphone which is a media that the target audience values above all else. The Insight Smartphones are useless at concerts. The lens is too wide you can’t zoom and the stage becomes a messy blur of light. The Canon Gig App is an app that connects your smartphone to a Canon DLSR camera from where you can take perfectly lit high-res photos. The Idea In Canon’s pursuit to take on the competition from mobile photography we want to place Canon in situations where we can demonstrate the advantages of high quality photography through visual and emotional experiences. The Canon GIG APP is a mobile app that works as a real-time product demonstration, demonstrating the advantages you get from a high quality Canon camera in a situation where the smartphone camera doesn’t cut it. The Implementation With the Canon Gig App users can connect their smartphone to a Canon DLSR camera and take high quality images in real time on their smartphone from where they can share them directly on social media. It acts as a digital "Trojan horse" that puts a high-quality DSLR experience right in the hands of every user. We can't give away the cameras, but we can give away the experience.

The Canon GIG App solves an essential business problem for Canon by providing a digital service that lets a potential customers experience the advantages of high-level photography in an emotional relevant context. The technology leverages Canon technology to extend the value proposition of the brand and position Canon as an innovative and digitally savvy brand with a global appeal. The technology used in this innovation leverages extensive use of several technologies that had to be integrated with custom developments in order for the solution to serve as a viable consumer facing experience. We have developed several custom developments to get the solution up and running. First off we needed to ensure images from the cameras were transported across the wireless network to each user with next to no latency, transforming the image signal to be compatible with user devices while maintaining an image resolution that communicates and maintains a level of fidelity that matches the original camera used. The project has just been picked up by Canons EMEA region and is being developed in two stages: 1) Make the Canon GIG available for all markets and in a format that makes it possible to implement the idea across a number of relevant touch points outside of Concerts (sport, culture, attractions etc.) 2) Create a variation of the idea that will work as a second screen app - allowing consumers that are watching live events on TV to take pictures of e.g. a football match and get the picture sent to them digitally or in a high resolution Canon Poster (print) thereby creating a series of new products that will provide a number business opportunities for Canon.

This project has had a very successful introduction and the fact that Canon is now looking to use the idea across the EMEA region points towards an interesting development in the coming months. Canon has established an EMEA taks force with the purpose of scaling this project across the EMEA region. Providing local markets the opportunity to either use the technology to establish a series of concerts or provide an interesting twist on a local sponsorship of a musician or band. Furthermore Canon is looking into creating a larger pan european event that can "travel" across the region where the GIG APP can play a central role in the activation of the sponsorship of the artist. In the short term Canon is looking to leverage the technology in some of its sponsorship properties i.e. London Fashion Week. The opportunity to scale this project across a number of existing media properties and marketing programs is huge and in the coming months development of these initiatives will begin to become an integral part of the Canon marketing program and provide an opportunity to reignite a young generations passion for quality photography.