WeTransfer Campaign Recasts Doubt as a Superpower in the Creative Process, Not a Liability

 

By thelaegotist / /

Creatives often view doubt as a weakness when they should recognize it as their greatest strength.

That’s the premise of a new brand campaign from WeTransfer and lead creative agency Preacher, called “Doubt. Create. Repeat.” It explores feelings of uncertainty in the creative process and calls on creatives to leverage doubt as fuel to propel new ideas forward. For example, in one scene, a woman is shown floating above a stage, untethered from gravity, saying, “Maybe the laws of physics aren’t chiseled in stone after all. Should we question everything? Yes. Doubt it all.”

Directed by Daniel Warwick of Biscuit Filmworks, the campaign’s strategy is rooted in the idea that doubt is a superpower that can dramatically improve outputs—with the help of the right creative tools. At the end of the spot, WeTransfer’s end-to-end suite of creative products is showcased—from Collect (an app for gathering inspiration) to Paper (a sketching app) to Paste (a collaborative presentation tool) to WeTransfer’s file-sharing service itself.

 

“Nothing is more important and central to the creative process than the question of, ‘Is there a better way to do this?’” said Damian Bradfield, Chief Creative Officer and President of WeTransfer. “Historically, some of our greatest artistic achievements are born out of conflict or revolution that’s reached critical mass. Conflict and struggle draw remarkable creativity in us that connects, inspires, and soothes. That’s the time we’re living through right now, and we wanted to capture that sentiment in this spot.”

Media was handled by independent media agency, Noble People, which is distributing :75, :60 and :30 versions of the spot online and with streaming partners like Hulu, along with :15 cuts specific to each part of the product offering. Another :30 version will run on Hulu, letting viewers choose their own ad experience. (They can opt to watch the final spot or a version showing how We Transfer’s tools brought it life). Videos and high-impact takeovers will run across creative communities, including music and film subreddits and sites like Genius, HypeBeast, HighSnobiety, VICE and Soundcloud.  

Additional activations include Sunday newsletters in The Hustle, which will feature long-form editorial with elements, graphics and charts created using WeTransfer tools. And podcast spots will run on Song Exploder and 99% Invisible, for which Preacher created live-read audio scripts for the hosts.

WeTransfer recently surveyed 30,000 people from creative industries for its upcoming Ideas Report, which explores the nuances of creativity and inspiration. Overwhelmingly, the report found that “feelings of doubt and concern about the future” are higher than normal, yet nearly half of respondents have felt a surge of creative ideas at the same time.

A designated site that further expands on the campaign can be found here

“We were excited to address the moment we’re all going through with a different point of view,” said Zach Watkins, a Creative Director at Preacher. “Instead of trying to assure everyone that we’ll get through this together, like so many brands have been doing over the past several months, we wanted to issue a challenge to our creative audience—a cheeky nudge to use this time of doubt as an opportunity to push new and better ideas out into the world.”

 

CREATIVE CREDITS

CAMPAIGN: “Doubt. Create. Repeat.”

 

Client: WeTransfer

Chief Creative Officer: Damian Bradfield

Executive Creative Director: Nessim Higson

Senior Director of Marketing: Julia Shapiro

Director of Digital Marketing: Faye Ehrich

Brand Marketing Manager: Megan Falcon & Patrick Moore

Creative Agency: Preacher

Chief Creative Officer: Rob Baird

Chief Executive Officer: Krystle Loyland

Chief Strategy Officer: Seth Gaffney

Creative Directors: Marcus Brown & Zach Watkins

Brand Director: Stephanie Smith

Junior Brand Manager: Madison Goldston

Senior Copywriter: Chris Vandersall

Senior Art Directors: Elliot Eliash & J.J. Kraft

Designer: Thomas Sullivan

Strategy Director Marika Wiggan

Senior Strategist: Paola Ortega & Stephen Maroda

Executive Producer: Stacey Higgins

Senior Producer: Rachel Kichler

Business Affairs: Abbi Press & Miiko Martin

Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks

Partner/Managing Director: Shawn Lacy

Executive Producer: Andrew Travelstead

Director: Daniel Warwick

Line Producer: Jakob Rühle

DP: Ottar Gudnason

Production Designer: Florentina Schmid

Casting: DEEBEEPHUNKY

Edit House: Cartel

Executive Producer: Lauren Bleiweiss

Producer: Amanda Ornelas

Editor: Andy McGraw

Assistant Editor: Roy Herbert

 

Finish & Animation: The Mill

Executive Producer: Peter Hullinger

Producer: Rachel Burke

Creative Director: Ergin Kuke

Designers: Tetsuro Mise, Wendy Eduarte Briceno

2D Lead: Sal Wilson

2D Artists: Heidi Anderson, Alex Koester, Matthew Dobrez

Colorist: James Bamford

Color Assists: Megan Lee, Rory Leighton, Cassie Benedict

Music Supervisor: Good Ear Music Supervision

Mix: TBD Post

Sound Mixer: Dusty Albertz

Producer: Francess Tom-Sahr

Media Agency: Noble People

 

 

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

`