Though Canon has historically led camera markets, consumers have turned to the influx of new options, ranging from smartphones to webcams, action cams to drones, and beyond. The brand needed to reposition itself in front of millennials, and rethink how they communicated with this media savvy, fickle audience.

The social revolution has made photography and videography more popular than ever before, turning consumers into creators.

Canon needed to identify leading social creators who were looking beyond the smartphone to DSLR cameras and lenses, and find a way to collaborate with them at scale across the social web, in a relevant and engaging manner.

Though social engagement is very important, all of these efforts still needed to connect with the brand's sales channels (such as online, independent retailers, big box retailers). Canon established a partnership with a Creator Studio called FREE, and a community-powered channel called #TheCreatorClass (#TCC).

#TCC brings together a global community of leading photographers, filmmakers and cultural influencers for stories and projects shared on the #TCC site/socials, and across the community's channels.

Together, they developed Canon­inspired programming featuring influential creatives, designed to empower and engage millennial audiences interested in Creator culture. This included #Shootityourself (a stylized "how to" teaching snack sized photography techniques powered by Canon shooters), Cheatsheet (a visual guide to video production terminology powered by Canon products, Originals (an inspiring look at creatives and entrepreneurs who have found empowerment through photography).

Over 80 episodes and daily Instagram features were promoted across #TheCreatorClass community site and social media, delivering millions of organic Canon integrated engagements on influential publisher sites and Instagram accounts.

Canon transformed FREE's studio into an incubator for Canon products, essentially turning all of the influencer-­featured programming into a brand experience to be shared on social. Ongoing events supported the range of daily content creation.

Every episode of the annual campaign was supported by digital focused PR efforts, connecting the content to influential publishers spanning millennial interested from photography, art, music and fashion.

The Canon branded episodes were amplified via a highly nuanced YouTube campaign, as well as paid promotion on a range of targeted premium publisher sites optimized for millennial creative culture.

Canon provided access to the content to their network of retailers, so that they could share on their respective sites and social channels.

A co-branded magazine was developed and shared to bring millennial­focused, content -driven product messaging to traditional retail environments.

Best Buy locations across the country were transformed into photo galleries and screening rooms for all of the Creator-­inspired programming.

Canon has typically looked to connect with an older audience who were more interested in traditional photography, rather than social media. Adapting their message to a new audience was a big change for the brand.

In the end, there was a total of 185 million impressions, 6.8 million video views, 180,000 hours watched, a 51% completion rate on YouTube, 1.5 million earned engagements, 785,000 contributions to the #TheCreatorClass hashtag on Instagram. Canon dealers experiencing significant increases in time spent on site since embedding #TCC content.

Sales data specific to this target is still coming in; however, research conducted on the partnership yielded the following: Millennial Purchase Intent, for those very likely to buy a Canon DSLR within the next 6 months, jumped from 31% to 53% after viewing a #TCC video. Those who strongly agreed Canon was the best tool to express their creativity almost doubled from 34% to 63% after watching #TCC content.