THE LOST TYPOGRAPHY OF BAUHAUS

Short List
TitleTHE LOST TYPOGRAPHY OF BAUHAUS
BrandADOBE
Product/ServiceADOBE TYPEKIT
Category A10. B2B
Entrant ABBY PRIEST Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation ABBY PRIEST Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production SWIM CLUB Stockholm, SWEDEN
Credits
Name Company Position
Andreas Morne Abby Priest Client Service Director
pontus widell Abby Priest Creative
Anders Hellström Abby Priest Creative
Oskar Hellqvist Abby Priest Creative Director
Cecilia Höglund Abby Priest Account Manager
AJ Joseph Adobe Executive Creative Sr. Director
Sabina Strasser Adobe Sr. Group Manager Brand Marketing EMEA
Dan Cowles Adobe Sr. Creative Director, Video Studio
Doug Beach Adobe Sr. Creative Director
Daniel Vargas Díaz Adobe Creative Director, EMEA
Sara O Dea Adobe Art Director
Beth Lovett Adobe Group Manager, Creative Cloud Campaign Marketing
Gwen Meyer Adobe Manager, Campaign Marketing, Design
Katja Dollinger Adobe Group Mktg Mgr Consumer & SMB, Germany
Natalia Lopez-Beswick Adobe EMEA Campaign Manager
Erik Spiekermann P98A Lead Typographer
Luca Pelligrini Freelance Typographer
Flavia Zimbardi Freelance Typographer
Hidetaka Yamasaki Freelance Typographer
Elia Preuss Freelance Typographer
Celine Hurka Freelance Typographer

Background

Adobe Typekit is a online service which offers a subscription library of high-quality fonts. The service is integrated in all Adobe Creative Cloud apps, such as Photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator. In summer 2018 Adobe wanted to inspire a new generation of creatives to design using typography. A campaign with the aim to increase the usage of Adobe Typekit amongst creative professionals and enhance Adobe’s brand vision of ’thought leadership in creativity’.

Describe the strategy

User data from Adobe Creative Cloud showed that the trial rate of Adobe Typekit, amongst potential customers and existing Creative Cloud customers, was low in comparison to other products. To get our target audience, creative professionals, to favor our service and fonts over the competition we needed to create something truly unique and engaging – beyond the technology and software. Our solution was to provide the professional creative community with unique assets, restored from the iconic design institute Bauhaus exclusively in Adobe Typekit. To increase brand affinity we targeted our audience with a multi-channel strategy, activating and inspiring them to experience the power and creativity built in to Typekit and the Adobe brand.

Describe the execution

In 1932 the Nazis shut down the iconic design institute Bauhaus and many potential design classics were left behind unfinished. Together with the Bauhaus foundation we turned sparse typographical sketches from the Bauhaus archives into five complete typefaces. Giving what was initiated by the Bauhaus masters almost a century ago new life in the hands of a new generation of designers. The project launched with an online campaign, spanning from June 15 – August 3, where the typefaces were spread globally through social media and a campaign site. The typefaces were made available for download through Typekit.com and directly within Adobe’s apps (i.e Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign) The campaign was activated through a series of competitions on Instagram with the challenge to design using the fonts. Further, we inspired our audience through influencer collaborations, online seminars, social videos, Youtube tutorials and a short online documentary about the project.

List the results

Primary KPI Target: 10 000 font downloads. Result: 407 000 font downloads. Exceeding target by 3970%. Secondary KPI:s Target: 500 competition submissions Result: over 2000 competition submissions . Exceeding target by 305%. Target: 25 articles in relevant target media. Result: 162 articles in relevant target media. Exceeding target by 548%. (Gross reach estimation of the articles exceeds 800 million potential impressions. The overall sentiment was positive, with most articles mentioning the launch of fonts and the call-to-action on how to download them.) Additional Results 15 600 organic social posts generating 147 million potential impressions 1.3 million social media engagements (likes & comments) 297 000 unique visitors on campaign site