Video shot with Nikon’s new digital camera could be mistaken for a Hollywood film trailer

How do you convince amateur and professional photographers that you have a bought-off-the-shelf digital camera that yields broadcast-quality video every time? Toronto marketing communications agency StrategicAmpersand, Nikon Canada’s advisor, let the D810 speak for itself.

For the astonishingly effective online campaign that confirmed Nikon’s digital video supremacy and StrategicAmpersand’s marketing savvy, StrategicAmpersand and Nikon Canada have been declared a co-winner of the Best Use of Video category in PR Daily’s 2014 Media Relations Awards. 

Nikon Canada’s amazingly beautiful, engrossing seven-minute content marketing video, “Every Moment Counts,” tells the story of Manny Vaughn, an octogenarian Nova Scotia cod fisherman. The landscape is magnificent, and director Preston Kanak’s admirable interior shots subtly suggest the loneliness, hardness, and danger of Vaughn’s life at sea.

But the other star of Kanak’s work of art is the Nova Scotia coastline. Those who’ve been there will recognize the luminous mystery of that haunting outpost in the North Atlantic. This reporter could not believe something so beautiful was shot on a hand-held, off-the-shelf digital camera.

StrategicAmpersand and Nikon Canada’s campaign around the video launch was well-planned and smartly executed:
• They raised awareness of “Every Moment Counts” with a behind-the-scenes photo series, a trailer, a short documentary, and a behind-the-scenes video.
• They loaded the D810 product-overview videos in French and English on YouTube on June 26, and they promoted the videos on Nikon Canada’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, and through media relations.
• StrategicAmpersand’s PR team pitched interviews with Kanak to several media outlets.
• The agency’s social media team engaged users on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, aiming at photo and film audiences.
• StrategicAmpersand started promoting the 75-second trailer for “Every Moment Counts” on July 9, four days before launch, and stirred up “significant excitement” on social media.
• After “Every Moment Counts” launched on July 13, the agency promoted it on social media until Aug. 1.

The D810 digital camera product launch yielded very satisfying results (results as of Aug. 20, 2014):
• 31,500 views for the Nikon D810 product-overview YouTube videos
• 62,000 views for the “Every Moment Counts” video on YouTube and Vimeo
• 120,000 Facebook users reached by paid and organic engagement

Corporate communicators really should take a look at what powerful, modest visual storytelling and content marketing look like when embodied in a video as memorable as “Every Moment Counts.”

Hearty congratulations are due to StrategicAmpersand staffers Amanda Balla, Steve Gold, Ryan Patrick, Cindy Watson, Anita Wong, and Joy Yap. For Nikon Canada, Amanda Mohammed also worked on this project.