Title	PROFOTO QUEST
Brand	PROFOTO
Product/Service	A1
Category	E01. Launch / Re-launch
Entrant	MKTG SWEDEN Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation	MKTG SWEDEN Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production	MKTG SWEDEN Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Vendela Hägge	Profoto AB	VP Global Marketing
Martina Nillenstedt	Profoto AB	Global Content & Brand manager
Anders Hannola	Profoto AB	Channel Marketing Manager
Lennart Söderberg	MKTG Sweden AB	Content Director
Anna Öberg	MKTG Sweden AB	Project Manager
Henrik Berglöf	MKTG Sweden AB	Copywriter
Pontus Hjertqvist	MKTG Sweden AB	Planner
Thomas Sundberg	MKTG Sweden AB	Art Director
Tobias Jakobsson	MKTG Sweden AB	Production Manager
Rasmus Wimby	MKTG Sweden AB	Film Producer
Johanna Segerstråle-Kjellin	MKTG Sweden AB	Final Art
Isak Hagen	MKTG Sweden AB	PR & Social Specialist

The Campaign

We knew that 92% of the new target audience have more trust in influencers than traditional advertising. That’s why we created Profoto Quest. An immersive playground for photographers with a strong presence in social media to explore the art of light shaping. We invited 90 photographers from 22 countries to join Profoto Quest in Stockholm. No one was paid to participate or told what to publish. The participants were faced with three quests that put their skills and their equipment to the ultimate test. But we gave them a surprise secret weapon - The Profoto A1. Under the supervision of experts from Profoto, they got to experience the new product when trying to capturing as diverse pictures as circus performers, MMA fighters and newlyweds. We put no pressure at all on participants to endorse Profoto. But knowing their strong presence in social media, we had a hunch what would happen…

Campaign Success

The project started in May of 2017 with planning, strategy and the mapping of influencers and the new target group. In June, invitations were sent to the selected influencers on all 22 markets involved in the campaign. Up until the Photo Quest, work was spent preparing the event, keeping the curiosity of influencers alive as well as preparing Profoto staff for their roles as session leaders. During the event, we arranged viewing meetings on local markets where content from the quest was exposed. The weeks following the Profoto Quest were spent amplifying the event by publishing and promoting content in Profoto’s own channels. The last stage of the campaign included debriefings and the measuringing of results.

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

The campaign produced truly great results. We found that the Facebook live stream of the reveal of Profoto A1 had reached over 162 000 viewers and generated over 49 000 views. The total number of viewers on Facebook and Youtube reached more than 600 000 views. The campaign had prompted over 10 000 interactions. Total reach of the campaign exceeded 6.8 million from launch. The reach generated from influencers alone was 4-5 million. 95% of participants mentioned Profoto on social media. The Profoto site had 524% more traffic than an average week. The newsletter from the campaign had an opening rate of over 30% and the Profoto newsletter got 6000 new subscribers. Most important of all. The Profoto A1 sold out in less than 24 hours and a third of the yearly sales target was reached in the first month. The A1 is now the best-selling of all Profoto products.

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

By providing our carefully selected influencers with the means of discovering the product and expressing themselves in the process, we were able to create demand for a very expensive piece of photo equipment far outside the traditional, narrow target audience it is usually associated with. By harnessing and amplifying the creativity of the influencers, we successfully managed to cross over to a new, significantly larger audience and created a completely new product category in the process. As a result, the Profoto A1 sold out in less than 24 hours and we created an excellent platform for further dialogue.

Two major insights guided our work: 1. The traditional target group for Profoto products are professional photographers. Profoto’s brand is extremely strong in this group, but virtually unknown in all others. Profoto needs to break out of this narrow and often traditional market. 2. Early on we felt that the best way to get people to grasp the greatness of Profoto A1 was to have them to actually use it for themselves and putting it to test. How could we emulate that experience? We decided to let the influencers that the target audience trust get the opportunity to experience the products first hand. Thus, reaching the audience with far more credibility than could be achieved through any regular advertising campaign. We also opted to have the official reveal of the Profoto live on Facebook and created launch meetings in different markets in order to amplify the reach of the event.