Canon collaborated with Google and leverage Google map’s street view and placed a virtual Canon 80D in everyone’s hand. For the first time, users could use Street View Recce to compose pictures like they would while using an SLR in some of the most picturesque locations available on Google maps and even allowed them to add some post-processing. What made the activity really engaging was travellers could then virtually travel to destinations that they’d always wanted. We also sent 4 lucky winners to visit the destination they recced to shoot using the real EOS 80D at the actual location assisted by a professional photographer. Finally, we shared their EOS 80D and Street View recce shots online and generated 30,000,000 media impressions which created a conversation. Street View Recce let people find photoesque locations online and inspired them to capture photos offline.

Canon collaborated with Google and leverage Google map’s street view and found a unique and experiential way to put a virtual Canon 80D in everyone’s hand.

A dedicated team of experts from Google and `Canon worked hand-in-hand to ensure that the entire digital experience was seamless and engaging. The website was built on Google’s street view API and allowed customers to travel to the far corners of the globe in search for that perfect shot and compose photos on a virtual EOS 80D for that one perfect shot with their favourite camera brand. For one month, entries were collated into a gallery to be showcased. Some shortlisted entries even called out salient features of the camera in the photograph’s descriptions.

The website enabled people to engage with the brand in a way they never had before. There were 1000 unique entries, while there were 145368 users who interacted with the site as people recced over hundreds of places from the deepest oceans to the tallest mountains for stunning photographs. 21% of these users came back to engage with the site more than once. This engaging platform of delivery helped the brand generate approximately 50,000 hours’ worth of brand engagement. The website was promoted across the GDN network with video mastheads, video pre-rolls, rich media mastheads, skyscraper and leaderboard banners, on YouTube with a low CPC of $0.22 and an actual CPV of $0.07. Ads were targeted at both shutterbugs and technophiles for relevancy.

But most importantly, Canon not only fuelled a latent need, it inspired people by providing them endless opportunities to take that perfect shot.