Talent relations and market research for Canon Pro

The client

Canon is a global market leader in digital imaging solutions, acclaimed for its camera and lensing technology. Its professional division, ‘Canon Pro,’ develops and manufactures equipment ranging from entry-level to high-end cinematography and photography gear, often found in the kit bags of the world’s most established talent.`

The digital imaging landscape is saturated and dominated by a handful of manufacturers in the cine space. To cut through the noise, direct conversations and detailed research are needed to communicate the best stories. Canon needed support with its talent relations and researching these stories, so they leaned on Grammatik for help.

The brief

Keen to develop more awareness across the European, Middle Eastern, and African cine markets, the Canon Pro EMEA team sought the assistance of an industry-specialised agency to help conduct research on the talent landscape. The project involved identifying and contacting cinematographers and production professionals using its cine product range, with the view to creating marketing content centred on customer stories.

Relationships and knowledge of the production industry were critical to the success of the ongoing project. With our expertise in the digital imaging, production, post-production, and broadcast industries, we jumped at the opportunity to enhance Canon’s talent relations.

The strategy

We needed a comprehensive approach to the initial research and started from scratch, forming a database to track, monitor, and evaluate talent. Working across an expansive geographical region like EMEA required a segmented strategy, tackling the research and outreach by country, profession, and industry.

Industry relationships and knowledge of the landscape were key, as they helped us identify appropriate talent among a pool of thousands of cinematographers and filmmakers. We tiered each individual based on Canon’s requirements for relevancy and experience, presenting our findings alongside a breakdown of data visualising the results. Although primarily an exercise in talent relations and research, it also proved useful for market research—understanding, by market, which manufacturers professionals lean towards, the industries they work in, and their professions.

Interested in hearing about our marketing and PR for the production and creative industries? Check out our work page.