23 Sep Behind the Scenes – “Element” Ad Campaign Pt. 1
If you’ve been reading firearms related magazines such as S.W.A.T., Shooting Illustrated, Combat Arms, etc., you’ve probably seen our newest advertising campaign we refer to as the “Element” Campaign. This was centered around the idea that we wanted to portray our rifles in a broad spectrum of environmental elements and stray from the usual over-manicured beauty shots. The campaign also allowed us to reinforce our products using battle-proven designs. We turned to iostudio for help in the creative process.
iostudio’s Creative Director Brian Donnenwirth remarked “This whole approach, even down to the body copy, is to walk the line between serious attitude and serious craftsmanship.”
We couldn’t agree more. The campaign won recognition in the 2011 American Advertising Federation ADDY Awards and the CASE Awards 2011, taking home a Silver ADDY for Consumer/Trade Print Campaign and the best of category award – print campaign for the “Monster” ad.
To achieve this look, we needed a highly controlled environment, so we built a rolling scaffold to photograph from and boxes large enough to to contain both the elements and the rifles. If you’re particularly squeamish about getting your firearms wet, muddy and/or generally dirty, turn back now. Two full days worth of preparation and photography went into this endeavor and as you can imagine, clean up was a pain. As the saying goes, no pain, no gain…