Nikon: In Pursuit of Light

Following the launch of its new mirrorless system – the Z series – Nikon’s challenge was to raise awareness of its capabilities , focusing on a key target audience – nature photographers – before showcasing the benefits to other genres of photographers.

We set up a multi-market influencer programme – called Zcreators – that not only enabled Nikon Europe to engage its preferred influencer talent, but also gave local markets the guidance and support to identify and contract their local super stars. We used Brands2Life’s proprietary framework, PUNCH, to provide a consistent influencer criteria and used it to benchmark both European and local influencer suggestions before contracting them to be a Zcreator for a year.

Gifting them kit in exchange of monthly deliverables, the influencers were invited to participate in specific challenges. The first wave focused on the system’s primary benefit – its ability to capture light like no camera before – and asked nature influencers to pursue light in the natural environment.

The community has since grown from an initial 12 nature influencers to over 65 influencers across Europe, all from different genres. All Zcreators visually articulate the capabilities of the Nikon kit, sharing incredible imagery along with pre-agreed campaign-hashtags, social handles and a link to the Nikon site.

The first wave of 12 nature influencers resulted in a total of 172 Instagram posts and Stories, with a total potential reach of over 1.7m. It pulled in 207,982  engagements, helping promote the Z series mirrorless offering. The campaign had an impressive average cost per engagement of £0.30 and, importantly, the beautiful imagery showcased the capabilities of the kit.