How Canon and RNIB helped blind and partially sighted people feel photography

Our hypothesis was that when people are exposed to more of what Canon does and its purpose, the more they’ll love the brand. Our approach was to highlight Canon’s lesser-known technologies and the positive impact it can have on the world.

As our audience was diverse, and included businesses and consumers, employees and investors, press and more, we needed a bold creative idea that cut through. The inspiration for that idea came from its decades-old corporate philosophy kyosei, which means seeing all people, regardless of race, culture or ability, living and working together in harmony.

Empathy, however, comes from a place of understanding – and our research showed that understanding of sight loss among sighted people is low, with many believing that blind and partially sighted people see nothing at all. So, we partnered with the RNIB, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (the UK’s leading sight loss charity) to help raise awareness of different eye conditions and among the sighted and to help guide the experience for blind and partially sighted people.

The result was World Unseen, a branded experience, in-person and online, that met and exceeded the business objective of changing perception of the Canon brand, driving brand love, and activating on its brand purpose.

EXECUTION (CREATIVE THINKING AND IMPLEMENTATION)

World Unseen opened at Somerset House, April 5-7th 2024, but the work started a year earlier, as our creative team and clients at Canon curated photographs from Canon photographers that best represented the brand’s purpose: imaging to transform our world. Together, we curated the photography and prioritised photographs that inspired us and changed the way we think, feel, and behave. We interviewed the photographers to help tell the stories behind their work, in their words and in their voice.

We then worked with Canon printing partners and the RNIB to help blind and partially sighted people experience the photography through touch, and to present the photographs to sighted people in ways that simulated sight loss. For both audiences, we worked with a sound production company to bring the photography and its stories to life.

The result is World Unseen, the photography exhibition you don’t need to see, featuring 15 photographs from world-famous photographers, seen through someone else’s lens, and experienced through touch, words, and sound. They are obscured by screens simulating different kinds of visual impairments, so sighted people see photography as blind and partially sighted people do. But everyone feels them in immersive and inclusive ways: from large-print, braille, and audio descriptions to lifelike tactile prints, all made possible with Canon technology.

To reach even more people, we launched an online version of the exhibition, where you experience the photographs through visual impairment simulations, written and audio descriptions, and immersive soundscapes. We promoted both the in-person and online exhibition with an accessible ad campaign, featuring a video series that paired photographers with blind and partially sighted people and included closed captioning and audio descriptions; social media ads that featured alt tags and video descriptions, radio ads that described the photos, and digital-out-of-home that integrated NaviLens codes, so people living with sight loss could have the content read aloud.

RESULTS (OUTCOMES & EFFECTIVENESS)

We needed to shift the perceptions of Canon, from a ‘camera company’ to a brand that is inspiring change through a bold idea that unequivocally captured people's attention.

We tracked perception change through exit polls which showed an NPS score of 70 (outstanding), with 74% of visitors describing Canon as a ‘force for good’.

Brand lift studies solidified this perception shift across Canon’s social activity. The message association which is most closely linked to the World Unseen campaign performed well, showing a 1.7pts lift – a 55% increase versus the industry average. This equates to over 30 thousand more accounts that associated the Unseen World messaging with Canon after being exposed to the ads.

Switching focus to attention, over 171 news outlets around the world including BBC, ITV, Sky covered World Unseen, helped Canon reach a global audience of over 2 billion people. The Times described it as “the most ground-breaking exhibition I've ever experienced.”

Its social campaign reached over 500 million people with 2.7 million completed video views and a view-through rate of 600% above benchmark – the strongest view-through rate the brand has ever had across all video view activity.

During the campaign period, Canon saw an average 10 million impressions more per week versus the previous 5-week period and its website saw a 400% increase in traffic with a 500% increase in engagement.

By making photography more accessible for the blind and partially sighted people, World Unseen contributed to the achievement of the Reduced Inequalities Sustainability Development goal.

“I stopped going to exhibitions, because I can’t really enjoy them in the way that I used to,” one partially sighted visitor said. “But this has been wonderful.”

The exhibition was sold-out across all 3 days. World Unseen increased the visibility of visual impairment as an issue, with the reach of visual impairment content being up 49% in the campaign period versus the previous 5 weeks. 84% of those who attended the exhibition said they had a better understanding of the visual impairment experience and over 98% of people rated the World Unseen exhibition as amazing. Campaigners are calling for this technology to be rolled out in other exhibition spaces. “This is something that should be mainstream,” one visitor said.

But this is only the beginning. The World Unseen exhibition will open in 28 countries around the world over the next year.

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