Evan Schultz on Uncharted Space

, Art Director, Adams Outdoor

An interesting new project of ours was a self-storage client, Conifer Storage. The product was fairly straight-forward but visually uninteresting. The spaces look like garages, all lined up in rows like chips on a computer board. Dilemma: how do you make THAT interesting? Or, even readable on a billboard? The client is expecting to see a photo of their storage units larger than life, literally. They gave us the choice of a straight-on photo or an aerial view. It was our choice, after all, we are the experts.

You probably guessed, we chose neither. We stripped all of it away, down to the core of what the benefit is: space. Everyone has their collection of “stuff” they’ve acquired over their lifetime, that they feel compelled to keep, for better or for worse (no questions asked). The “stuff” itself can be completely unique, and really interesting. And, Conifer has the storage space for anything you might have. So, we started to imagine…

We were thinking of things people might actually have. Then we started thinking about the things that people probably didn’t have but if they did, having enough space would be crucially important, if not vital.

The more we thought, the more interesting the items became. In fact, the best ideas were the items that any normal person would be completely unlikely to own, like a submarine. The client took some convincing. Our argument being, the more your campaign is engaged by the audience, the more the audience will remember you and the benefit you offer. Since we creatives weren’t meeting with the client, we were completely dependent on our Account Executive to sell the idea. The importance of a cohesive team cannot be stressed enough. If your AE isn’t behind it, completely, and you don’t completely trust them to push the idea with an unsure client, then best to sell it to the client yourself. But, the AE walked the client through every strategy behind the campaign and invited them to be part of the fun. And the result is going up in our market next week. It will be fun to see the campaign larger than life, or perhaps closer to scale.

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One Comment

  1. Eye catching, comical which will be remembered, and great color / size graphics. Good job. Results should be outstanding.