Canon

We helped Canon stop speaking in specs—and start speaking to hearts. “It’s Time” crowned them not just as a technical leader, but as the emotional king of the camera aisle.

Canon: The Heart Revolution

Client Category
Consumer Electronics · Imaging · Technology

Services Provided
Brand Strategy · Campaign Creative · TV & Video · Digital Content · Messaging Strategy · Social Media · Integrated Campaign Development

Business Challenge

Canon found itself trapped in the digital camera arms race — a category obsessed with megapixels, sensors, and zoom lengths. Competitors battled fiercely over technical superiority, but consumers couldn’t tell the difference.

Canon had the quality.
Canon had the trust.
What they didn’t have was heart.

In a landscape drowning in identical feature charts, consumers recognized Canon’s technical excellence but felt emotionally disconnected. Cameras were becoming commodities. And before the rise of smartphones as default cameras, brands needed more than specs — they needed soul.

To win the category, Canon had to stop shouting specs and start saying something human.

Strategic Insight

People don’t fall in love with megapixels.
They fall in love with moments.

While the entire industry zoomed in on technical specs, consumers were craving something deeply human: a way to preserve life’s irreplaceable experiences.

Our insight was simple:
The real competition wasn’t other camera brands — it was emotional indifference.

This aligned directly with BYU’s creative filter: build work that drives Emotion, Relevance, and Difference .

Canon didn’t need a louder specs message.
They needed a more meaningful reason to exist.

Creative Solution

We launched a category-redefining platform:

“It’s Time.”

A declaration that Canon wasn’t selling features — it was selling the ability to freeze time, cherish memory, and capture magic.

Human Story Architecture

• Real storytelling focused on joy, wonder, connection
• Demonstrated that capturing memories felt different with Canon
• Made imagery secondary to the emotion behind it

Generational Bridge Building

• TV, print, and digital content crafted with warm, nostalgic narratives
• Connected parents, kids, grandparents — everyone who cherishes moments

Technical Translation

• Transformed complex features into simple human benefits
• Technology served emotion, instead of overwhelming it
• Removed the fear and confusion that specs-heavy categories often create

Memory-Making Positioning

• Every touchpoint reinforced a single truth:
  Canon isn’t selling cameras; it’s selling the magic of captured life.

This wasn’t just a repositioning.
It was a revolution in how cameras were marketed.

Results

📈 Significant market share gains — driven by emotional differentiation
🧠 Shift in consumer recall — from technical features to emotional meaning
🏆 Category leadership strengthened — Canon became synonymous with “captured moments”
📸 Industry redefinition — competitors followed Canon’s move toward emotional storytelling
💬 Brand love surged — as consumers embraced a camera brand that understood them

Category Takeaway

Canon didn’t win the camera wars by out-spec’ing the competition.
They won by out-feeling them.

In technical categories, sameness is the enemy. When every brand sounds identical, the one that speaks to hearts — not heads — claims both mindshare and market share.

This is how Canon became the King of Captured Emotion:
by transforming cameras from cold devices into warm invitations to remember.

The lesson for marketing leaders?
Don’t out-feature the competition. Out-feel them.
Emotion is the sharpest competitive edge.

That’s how heroes become kings.