A resounding slap of creativity

While a slap across the face is provocative, we actually used projection for a less stinging affect, but still got a lot of attention.

Something bright and bold was needed to kick start the 2014 Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) Creative Industries recruitment drive. The concept recognised that while many people know they have a gift or desire to follow a creative pursuit, they just need encouragement to take the first steps on to the creative pathway. We wanted a campaign to say “hey, you’re creative, put aside your excuses and be who you know you were meant to be”. It needed to encourage viewers to find out more about the suite of choices available from NMIT Creative Industries, including visual arts, digital arts and photography, writing, music and interior design courses.

The resulting ‘Face It – You’re Born to Create’ campaign was literally ‘in your face’ and hard to ignore. We gathered a group of NMIT students, painted their faces white for a blank canvas and then photographed projections of words and images across their faces.

The photographs were used to create images for digital and print advertising. Online ads are linked back to a landing page that introduces visitors to an overview of what’s available at NMIT and acts as a bridge between the advertising and the detail of the NMIT main site. Our role was to come up with the creative ideas, collaborate with tutors and students and execute the campaign. This successful partnership created a sense of ownership with management, staff and students and also gave us a rich resource of images.

The results have been excellent with higher than expected click-through rates and good levels of engagement with the NMIT recruitment team. Smiling faces all round!