Canon shows off camera's super-zoom lens in a creative Instagram campaign

By Gannon Burgett June 1, 2016

Canon Instazoom

Coming up with a creative advertising campaign is far easier than it sounds, especially when it’s revolved around social media. But Canon Asia, alongside advertising agency Dentsu Singapore, managed to do just that with “Canon Instazoom,” the latest campaign to promote the PowerShot SX60 HS super-zoom point-and-shoot (via

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Branding Asia).

Canon worked alongside Dentsu to create an interactive advertising campaign built entirely within Instagram. We aren’t sure why the company picked an older camera to promote, instead of the newer PowerShot SX620 HS, but the SX60 HS’ impressive 65x optical zoom might have something to do with it.

Canon PowerShot SX60 HS — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The concept behind the advertising campaign is to show off how the SX60 HS offers far more zoom than many other cameras on the market, particularly those within smartphones. (Yes, the battle between traditional cameras and smartphone cameras continues.)

Canon_Instazoom_Ad 2 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

To create this puzzle masterpiece, it required over 33 Instagram accounts, 297 photographs, and 330 captions to create a network of photographs and accounts that effectively let you “zoom” into an image using Instagram’s tagging feature. For example, tapping on “sexy_skyline” takes you to one of the Instagram accounts to get up-close to a skyscraper that’s under construction.

Within the main image, there are two dozen individual stories and photographs to find. Users who find all 24 of the scenarios were entered for a chance to win a SX60 HS.

Canon_Instazoom_Ad 3 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

While the creative aspect is easily seen, the irony might not be. By using a social network dominated by smartphone-captured photographs, Canon is effectively hitting its target market without the need for sponsored posts by showing off its flagship super-zoom point and shoot within Instagram. Simple and apparently very effective.

Canon reports that its social engagement increased by 947 percent and its viral reach by 475 percent. Over the course of three days, Canon obtained over 1.3 million impressions. Those are numbers difficult to achieve with specialized, sponsored posts, let alone a advertising campaign made up of nothing more than a couple dozen Instagram accounts and photographs.

You can check out the experience for yourself by visiting Canon’s Instazoom Instagram profile.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDnqFbdSIUY/

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