THE XPLORING BRIEF

The digital revolution has made photography accessible to everyone as the digital camera market is developing faster than other creative media, both technically and creatively. People now have an ever-expanding choice of tools to create their pictures while one product innovation is chasing the next. Everybody is able to document their lives and to explore their creative potential without taking any risks. Not only have people been empowered to create more images of their lives but also to share them and collaborate with others. Photographs have become the new social currency that people are trading on social networking sites to influence others and express their identity. It’s a universal language everyone can understand, but the quantity of images has taken over the quality of photos leading to digital inertia. Digital cameras are becoming commoditized in the megapixel and price battle. Consumers are trying to stay on top of the digital camera swamp as they are stuck in a tyranny of choice. What all camera brands are failing to do is to create an emotional connection with people who may not be passionate about photography as such, but use digital cameras in their everyday lives.

The purpose of this Xploring project is to uncover a strategic insight that will help us lift people’s rational barriers and take us to a powerful organizing idea.

Areas of Curiosity:
- The rise of creativity in people’s everyday lives
- People’s hidden creative talents
- How people reportage their lives in pictures
- How people’s see the world through their camera
- People’s passion to preserve their experiences on pictures
- What makes a good camera for ordinary people


THE XPLORING TASK
Xploring is based on a very simple principle:
If you want to understand how a tiger hunts, don’t go to the zoo...Go to the jungle.

Xploring is much more than gathering information, it means going into unknown territory. Taking risks, perhaps taking a wrong turn. It means following your gut and listening, really listening. It means trusting your instincts, over and beyond the facts given. Knowing that when you do, you'll see more, understand more.

We will spend the next weeks with real people in the real world to understand the things that matter to them when taking pictures. Our Xploring journey will take us to people living in Germany, Poland, Russia, Italy, Spain and the U.K. We will go to their homes, spend a day with their families and friends, share their personal memories, connect with them through social networking sites, go on a night out, play with their cameras, listen to their stories, and observe their creative abilities…etc.


13 July 2009

A Good Night Out

I decided to take our new Nikon Coolpix P6000 to Karl's leaving due at the Carpenter's Arms as I wanted to play around with it a little. Half the agency staff had come to say good-bye to Karl who was going to leave the country to pursue a new assignment in Germany. At first everyone was a little uncomfortable with me taking pictures. I could only capture the usual point and shoot images with people forcefully smiling or trying to show their best sides. The girls were obsessed with instantly viewing the images I had just taken of them and I was asked to press delete if they weren't happy with what they saw. A few pints later the atmosphere had clearly loosened up and the camera didn't seem to cause discomfort anymore. In fact, people intuitively started pulling funny faces and creating poses as soon as I pointed the camera at them. The ice was broken. Yuki and Faraaz took over the camera to play around with it. Pointing and shooting at anyone that caught their eye, checking each image on the screen to reassure that their catch was satisfactory before sharing it with us. Lizzie, Florian, Charlie, Vicky and Yvonne joined in as we were striking poses for the camera.













Just as we were passing the camera around for people to play with it, the battery died. I suppose some people got lucky that the camera couldn't catch more evidence of the night;-). When I went through the images the next day, they were telling the story of a wild bunch of Saatchi people on a fun night out.

Insights:
- It's not just about capturing moments, it's about creating moments with the camera.
- People are more open to playing around with cameras, because there is no risk in failure.
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