Overview
problem
The New England Aquarium needs to drive ticket sales year after year and have limited ability to expand their infrastructure. They needed an ad campaign that would renew interest in an existing exhibit and this year they chose fur seals.
solution
The fur seal exhibit presented an incredible opportunity to show off the personality of the animals. I knew I needed custom photography, with movement and personality to drive visual interest for a campaign that was primarily found in fast-moving environments.
Campaign Branding
After landing on a somewhat long title, I knew I needed a campaign lockup to save space. The secondary font was chosen for legibility while the primary font was chosen to mimic the animal’s shape.
Cohesive Colors
With 150+ pieces of creative in a single station, I knew I wanted a range of colors to keep the campaign interesting and bright. The set I landed on was designed to stand out elegantly in a subway setting.
Underwater Photography
I directed 4 photoshoots with photographer Keith Ellenbogen (and a team of trainers) to get the right shots for this campaign. A shoot was the only way to get the right animals and the right motions at once.
The Wave
This is a subtle design element that does a lot. It houses the logo, adds motion to the page and adds depth by giving the seals something to swim over.
Bubbles
Once the animals are cut out of their background they start to lack motion. The bubbles not only added the energy I was hoping for, but depth as well.
Text Pairings
Though simple, these words took a lot of work. They needed to be short enough to read well, and they needed to evoke the emotions of the photos we had already taken.
digital support.
While most of the campaign relied on classic out of home, we also developed a robust set of digital assets. Shooting video was not realistic for this campaign, so I worked closely with my animator to add movement to the bubbles and wave pattern. These assets could be found in Facebook Canvas units, paid social and classic OLA to drive online ticket sales.
My take
What a great animal to make a campaign about. Dogs of the sea. They are playful & energetic, smart & communicative and at the end of the day still know how to kick back, scratch their back and take a snooze as they float. They are just endlessly relatable. What visitors often don’t get to see is how graceful they are underwater. Their eyes light up and their fur glistens, rippling as they shoot through the water.
This campaign had station dominations at both Park St. and South Station with both printed and digital units, standard & UltraSuper bus wraps, a campus billboard, pole banners on Atlantic ave, print pieces in Boston Magazine and the Improper Bostonian, a Facebook canvas unit and OLA.