Canon’s 'Project Imagin8ion' was the first photo contest in history to inspire a Hollywood film. The project invited the masses to unleash their imaginations like never before, helping to shape the next production of 2-time Oscar-winning director, Ron Howard. By interpreting 8 core tenets of storytelling, photographers from all skill levels could dictate things like setting, goal and main character. After a user-generated vote decided the finalists, the 8 winning photographs were chosen by Ron Howard, who then had to narratively sew them together in a film that ultimately premièred at the Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Project Imagin8ion launched with an epic, national TV spot that invited the masses to join this unique filmmaking experiment at our YouTube site. There were OOH teasers in Time Square, press releases, digital tactics on popular sites like the New York Times, Yahoo and YouTube, behind-the-scenes, guerrilla strategies, coffee table books, flipbooks, a screenplay excerpt program, a movie trailer, and invitations to the première.At the final film’s première at the Museum of Natural History, guests experienced the journey of the project by walking through an immersive gallery made up of the nearly 100,000 printed submissions. All leading to the screening of “when you find me,” a Ron Howard production.The film then aired in theatres across the country, including screenings at the Sundance, South by Southwest and Tribeca film festivals. Not to mention, an exclusive online première on the contest site for our community that inspired it all.

With Project Imagin8ion, instead of selling Canon DSLR cameras by listing all of their high-tech features, we leveraged the endless creative possibilities these cameras offered consumers.This unique opportunity garnered photo entries at a world record-shattering pace, over 25,000 a week. As buzz exploded, the project reached an $8.4m earned media value, over a half a billion earned media impressions, and total impressions near 3.5bn and still climbing. Following the contest launch, Canon gained a colossal 30-point swing in Unit Share over their biggest competitor, Nikon. And by Black Friday (right after the final film’s premiere), Canon’s market share spiked to an unprecedented 71.7%, making November the best month in Canon’s history, during the biggest shopping weekend of the year.Lastly, we secured Canon’s ownership of industry-revolutionizing DSLR HD video, which with the help of Ron Howard, now opened the doors to Hollywood.