THE BRIEF
Canon EMEA approached drupa 2024 with “The Power to Move” as their central marketing theme – a creative strapline and visual theme that needed to be transformed into substantive, credible content that would resonate across multiple audiences and market segments. The challenge was to take this evocative phrase and develop a robust messaging architecture that could support meaningful content creation across all communication channels.
Canon EMEA’s production print business serves six distinct market segments (Commercial Print, Publishing, Promotional Communications, Labels & Packaging, Interior Décor, and In-house & CAD), each with different business drivers, challenges and decision-making criteria. The “Power to Move” concept needed to work authentically for all these audiences while maintaining Canon’s positioning as both a technology leader and trusted business partner.
The brief required AD Communications to go beyond the surface-level marketing messages and create a content strategy grounded in deep market insight and genuine understanding of customer challenges. Only with messaging of substance and relevance to the target audience of senior capital equipment investors would we be able to deliver an effective integrated communications campaign to drive footfall and engagement with Canon’s technology and applications stories.
THE STRATEGY
Using our decades of production print market expertise, we developed a strategic approach that deconstructed “The Power to Move” into four distinct but interconnected layers, each grounded in real market dynamics and customer needs:
Emotional Layer: Print’s unique power to move people emotionally – from the joy of engaging with a printed book to the motivation sparked by promotional materials or the anticipation of premium packaging experiences.
Business Transformation Layer: Canon’s ability to inject momentum into customer businesses through improved production efficiencies, expanded application ranges, access to new markets and the establishment of more sustainable practices.
Industry Ecosystem Layer: How Canon works with PSPs and their customers to drive positive change through whole industry value chains, challenging established ways of working and innovating beyond traditional print production.
Sector Leadership Layer: Canon’s responsibility to spearhead change across the printing industry, championing sustainability progress, embracing automation and nurturing future generations to value print.
For each market segment, we then developed specific messaging that made these four layers relevant and credible. Rather than generic benefits, we identified precise pain points, opportunities and business outcomes that would resonate with decision-makers in each vertical.
Our strategy recognised that effective content strategy must demonstrate domain expertise and market understanding – showing not just what Canon’s technology can do, but why it matters in the context of each audience’s specific business reality.
THE TACTICS
Comprehensive Messaging Architecture Development
We created detailed messaging frameworks for each of the six market segments, identifying specific “The Power to Move” applications for People, Businesses, Extended Value Chains and the Wider Industry. This included developing segment-specific narratives around automation, sustainability, business model innovation and market expansion opportunities.
Executive Bylined Content Creation
We proposed and wrote three substantial thought leadership articles (around 1,100 words each) for Canon executives, each focused on a different market segment. These articles demonstrated how the overarching theme could be authentically applied to specific market contexts, moving beyond product features to address real business challenges and opportunities.
Supporting Materials Development
We developed comprehensive talking points documents, comment banks for media interactions, and extended messaging guidance that enabled consistent communication across all touchpoints. This included specific guidance on discussing AI integration, sustainability commitments and the inkjet/toner technology narrative.
Multi-Channel Content Integration
The messaging framework was designed to work across all communication vehicles, from press releases and technical documentation to social media and customer presentations. Each piece of content reinforced the central “Power to Move” narrative while addressing the specific needs of different audiences and communication objectives.
Industry Positioning and Thought Leadership
We positioned Canon spokespeople as industry visionaries, not just technology vendors, by grounding their commentary in broader market trends, collaborative industry initiatives (such as Publishing 2030 Accelerator) and forward-looking business model evolution.
THE OUTCOMES
- Strategic Messaging Coherence: Transformed a marketing strapline into a comprehensive content strategy that resonated across six distinct market segments.
- Thought leadership: Positioned Canon executives as trusted industry voices through insight-led content.
- Scalable Content Framework: Delivered a scalabe framework that supported ongoing content development and ensured consistency across channels and campaigns.
