• Kodak | A Case Study

Kodak | A Case Study.

  • Insight 1:

    In 2008 our Creative Director saw Kodak running down a path towards bankruptcy. Their public perception was quickly going down hill, the brand’s integrity was dying. They seemed to be focussing on selling an ever increasing number of cheap bottom-barrel digital cameras through outlets that mainly consisted of convenience stores. Meanwhile with the rise of smartphones the demand for low-end consumer cameras was rapidly diminishing and the only people buying were the elderly who both grew up with an awareness of Kodak's impact and that hadn’t yet adopted smartphones.

  • Insight 2:

    Kodak was doing nothing to capitalize off the "looks" they had spent millions in R/D engineering for their once revered films. A new generation was growing up unaware of the achievements and impact Kodak had on the world or in what products their technology was being utilized.

Concept

Shift Kodak from an analogue to a digital sales strategy and educate younger generations about Kodak's legacy and impact.

A series of print ads would serve to remind a new generation of the impact Kodak had on humanity in the 20th century, such as allowing us to see the moon landings or watch Star Wars in a theatre.

A badge would be created to be printed on packaging that would alert consumers to the Kodak technology being utilized in the high-end products they were already buying, such as Hasselblad Cameras and Apple iPhone's using Kodak digital camera sensors.

In a day and age where the highest profiting businesses where selling intellectual property and digital content over analogue consumer goods Kodak needed to catch up and move on to a digital sales model. An app would be created to allow users to apply the looks of Kodak's film to their smartphone's images while serving as a platform to advertise new Kodak cameras that would have stronger versions of the film emulation feature built-in. This would allow Kodak to capitalize off their valuable intellectual property that was the extensive R/D behind the Kodak film "looks".

Result

In 2015 Kodak woke up and implemented almost every item addressed in our Creative Director's business plan. Kodak created marketing and advertisements discussing their technology being the force that allowed the world to witness the moon landing and Star Wars films (new Star Wars films now owned by disney). Kodak created an app to allow users to apply the looks of their films to their smartphone images, however by this time competitiors including VSCO and Instagram had already seen and filled this market oppurtunity. Sadly Kodak had already subdivided and the main technology company which was continuing to die would not be able to benefit from Kodak film who was now out of bankruptcy and sky rocketing into profits for the first time in decades.

In a paralel world Kodak might brought their business model into the digital age, centering the model around intelectual properties, in a way similar to what our Creative Director had envisioned in 2008.