Casio G-Shock
BUILT DIFFERENT
Insight
Gen Z don’t wear watches. But it’s not just because the supercomputers in their pockets can also tell the time. It’s because they don’t like what watches stand for. Either cheap, throwaway and mass produced, or inauthentic, opportunistically branded bangles, or even worse, overly expensive symbols of excess. They simply don’t relate to the category, so they don’t relate to G-Shock despite its impressive cultural archive or its world-renowned toughness. That left G-Shock with an audience of nostalgic 35+ men reminiscing about the past, or wearing watches to hint at their macho ruggedness.
Challenge
We had to create a new proposition for the brand that resonates with Gen Z and create a halo effect on the entire audience. And one we could later use to generate a whole new creative platform for G-Shock that would authentically recruit them into the brand. Working with the UK team we needed to be sympathetic to the global Masterbrand and find a way to reappraise ‘toughness’ and ‘never give up’, the principles upon which the brand was created.
Change
Always Different, Always You, a strategic platform built from two axes of insight. Axis one being Gen Z’s expertise in referencing. Travelling digitally backwards and forward through time searching for their style and culture symbols. Axis two exists being Gen Z’s expertise in blending creativity and pragmatism in their life. Using brands to creatively express identity, and then flipping them for cash when they evolve and become the next version of themselves. ‘Built Different’ became our campaign platform, allowing us to seamlessly move through the funnel from conceptual brand building activity through to product centric performance driven comms.
Insight
Gen Z don’t wear watches. But it’s not just because the supercomputers in their pockets can also tell the time. It’s because they don’t like what watches stand for. Either cheap, throwaway and mass produced, or inauthentic, opportunistically branded bangles, or even worse, overly expensive symbols of excess. They simply don’t relate to the category, so they don’t relate to G-Shock despite its impressive cultural archive or its world-renowned toughness. That left G-Shock with an audience of nostalgic 35+ men reminiscing about the past, or wearing watches to hint at their macho ruggedness.
Challenge
We had to create a new proposition for the brand that resonates with Gen Z and create a halo effect on the entire audience. And one we could later use to generate a whole new creative platform for G-Shock that would authentically recruit them into the brand. Working with the UK team we needed to be sympathetic to the global Masterbrand and find a way to reappraise ‘toughness’ and ‘never give up’, the principles upon which the brand was created.
Change
Always Different, Always You, a strategic platform built from two axes of insight. Axis one being Gen Z’s expertise in referencing. Travelling digitally backwards and forward through time searching for their style and culture symbols. Axis two exists being Gen Z’s expertise in blending creativity and pragmatism in their life. Using brands to creatively express identity, and then flipping them for cash when they evolve and become the next version of themselves. ‘Built Different’ became our campaign platform, allowing us to seamlessly move through the funnel from conceptual brand building activity through to product centric performance driven comms.
