Title	ADOBE - HOVERING ART DIRECTOR
Brand	ADOBE
Product/Service	ADOBE STOCK
Category	B01. Use of Ambient Media: small scale
Entrant	ACHTUNG!mcgarrybowen Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation	ACHTUNG!mcgarrybowen Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production	HOBBY FILM Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production 2	JELMAR HOEKSTRA Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production 3	AMBASSADORS Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production 4	YUM YUM LONDON London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production 5	EGOTRIBE Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Additional Company	ROY BEMELMANS Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
Mervyn ten Dam	Achtung !mcgarrybowen	Creative Director
Sven Vening	Achtung !mcgarrybowen	Business Director
Jasper Janssen	Achtung!mcgarrybowen	Senior Creative
Niklas Kristensen	Achtung!mcgarrybowen	Senior Creative
Chris Mezofi	Achtung!mcgarrybowen	Design Director
Daniël Sytsma	Achtung!mcgarrybowen	Creative Director
Michael James Phillips	Achtung!mcgarrybowen	Creative
Bert Marissen	Achtung!mcgarrybowen	Creative
Alexis Jabbour	Achtung!mcgarrybowen	Creative
Gerben van der Zwaard	Achtung!mcgarrybowen	Strategist
Esther Kroes	Achtung!mcgarrybowen	Producer
John Gerard	Achtung!mcgarrybowen	Producer
Suzanne Whittaker	Achtung!mcgarrybowen	Producer Trainee

The Campaign

Adobe Stock is pretty much the same as any other stock. Except, it’s embedded in Photoshop so designers can work faster. Why would they care? Because the biggest barrier in delivering highly creative output is the combination of time pressure from ridiculous deadlines and perfectionist art directors slowing down the creative process. From now on, designers can finally keep up with their most intrusive co-workers: hovering art directors So we brought the most well known creative industry stereotype to life and created The Hovering Art Director. Famous for having more ideas than any designer can keep up with, micromanaging and taking up time with last minute improvements. As designers love toys, we turned the stereotype into vinyl. The very first designer toy that can give feedback on designs (even if you didn’t ask for it). Oh, and it’s the ultimate foot-in-the-door item for Adobe Stock.

Campaign Success

By bringing the Hovering Art Director to life, we created the ultimate foot-in-the-door item (or, put-on-the-desk item, as you will) for Adobe Stock. We sent out 3000 Hovering Art Director designer toys to designers, art directors and studio managers from influential creative agencies worldwide. To stimulate interaction, we launched a website that awards an action figure to the most original and outrageous HAD-quotes. The designer toy comes in Adobe-branded packaging that’s custom designed down to the very last detail to match the Hovering Art Director’s cooperative personality. It’s equipped with a built-in speaker with 18 lines of pure hovering wisdom, capable of commenting on people’s creative work (even if you didn’t ask for it), which gives it a relevant role when using Adobe Stock and other Adobe .

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Reach We managed to qualitatively reach 18,5 million impressions within the creative industry worldwide (in completed views). Engagement Not only did we managed to reach them, we also engaged them around the product: we had an engagement rate of 3.26%, over three times higher than the industry average, with a positive sentiment on all three target groups (100% positive score) and a social view completion rate twice the benchmark. Over 3000 designers willingly put an Adobe-branded design toy on their desk, so the toy can be seen as the ultimate foot-in-the-door item. Conversion This converted into 12,6%% leads, and the webinars attracted nearly 700% more participants than strived for. Besides all that, one thing’s for sure: there is no valid reason to complain about not being able to keep up with hovering art directors anymore.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

The phenomenon of the Hovering Art Director is spot on recognisable, and hits right between the eyes of the most important influencers (designers) and decision makers (senior creative management) together responsible for choosing Adobe Stock. A well worked out pallet of targeted call to actions aiming for interaction; a video showing the benefit of the newly integrated Adobe Stock product, webinars showcasing a faster workflow of the product and stimulating trial, a designer toy generating leads, and giveaways creating door openers for account managers, which generates buzz and credibility, and helps Adobe build a solid installed base.

Adobe CC (including Stock) is used in the creative industry, primarily by designers. Research shows that designers are key influencers for stock purchasing. Especially in SMB’s there’s often no dedicated procurement for stock: it’s actually the designers who decide what provider is used. Therefore we opted for an approach that directly targeted the culture of designers and creatives. Many designers are fans of collectible designer vinyl toys; you can find them in any design agency. Knowing this, we targeted them by offering them a limited edition vinyl toy. But, the average designer also deliberately knows what he does and doesn’t like. Therefore, deciding to bring the Hovering Art Director to life, we knew one thing for sure. It had to be an attention-grabbing-jealousy-sparking-I-totally-want-this-on-my-desk-collectors-item. So, crafting for perfection in both concept and execution was necessary. It needed to be a designer toy designers would actually want to have on their desk.