An independent creative agency in LA.
How do you launch a 158-year-old start-up to the world for the first time?
That’s what we set out to answer with our partners at Guardian. In the first brand campaign for the Fortune 250 company, we were tasked to help Guardian step into the light for the first time in its long history.
There’s something powerful in the word Guardian, something that brings us back to what matters. Family, sacrifice, the moment you realize that you’re part of something bigger. Those are the stories we wanted to bring to life with our integrated campaign, which includes TV, social, digital, OOH, and a rebrand.
“An empathetic rallying cry of togetherness.”
A new position for a new era. Finding a point of view that’s unique and ownable for a brand that’s done incredible things for a really long time - but never quite said anything in market - was a challenge unto itself. Driven by their core values above all, Guardian’s place in market is about more than just telling everyone what they do - it’s the how and why that sits in the center of true differentiation. The positioning needed to be authentic to not only the brand, but the thousands of people that support the brand every single day.
Everyone deserves a Guardian. The campaign was guided by Guardian’s founding story and principles. Guardian was founded by a German civil rights lawyer looking to help create a better life for his fellow immigrants, and that guiding principle is something we wanted to honor in the centerpiece of our campaign - our films.
With casting playing a critical role in the process, non-actors shared their own stories, and actors who were hired had backgrounds that intersected with the characters they were cast to play. Some of the stories included in the campaign were surfaced in casting. That’s how we met Anita and Joanna, identical twin sisters whose bond was only strengthened after a car accident 20 years ago. And Ruba and Roua, sisters and refugees from Syria who are starting over in their new community.
The film informed a greater integrated campaign, which popped up in hyper-targeted markets. UK artist Rob Bailey, who is known for distinctive imagery created by combining shapes and colors, teamed up with us to create distinctive original art for the out of home campaign.
