To celebrate Photoshop's 25th Anniversary, Adobe was tasked with not only creating awareness for how far Photoshop has come over the last 25 years, but also to start a dialogue about what the future holds for the well-known brand. Adobe wanted to create a forward-looking campaign that would appeal to the next generation of Photoshop users and would:
Celebrate a milestone without focusing on the past
Celebrate the creative community of Photoshop artists and their work without focusing excessively on the product itself
Reach a young, millennial audience
Adobe needed to create an integrated approach that would capture both the social audience and influencers, as well as engage the public over traditional media.
Starting in February 2015, the brand launched a search for 25 of the most creative visual artists under the age of 25. The company scoured the entire globe, turning over every rock, in order to find artists to represent the future of Photoshop. Adobe looked for the most innovative, forward-looking work out there to show the world what the next generation of Photoshop artists are made of.
The company identified 25 game changers from all parts of the world, and showcased how their art represents their diverse cultures, life experiences, points of view and dreams – all brought to life with the help of Photoshop.
In honor of Photoshop's 25th year, each artist created an original piece of art to celebrate the milestone. Over the course of the year, each of the 25 artists participated in a two week takeover of Adobe Photoshop's new Instagram channel sharing their story and their art with the world.
Beginning in February 2015, Behance members under twenty five uploaded and tagged their work with "PS25under25″ to alert the team to their work. The team then went through each submission, adding them to a Behance Collection. The submissions were then funneled through a selection committee who approved each #Ps25Under25 artist.
The 25 young artists selected and their work represented a wide variety of creative disciplines and categories, including photography, illustration, graphic design, animation, 3D design, typography and more.
Five of the 25 Under 25 artists attended Adobe MAX in person, where the first sixteen commissioned pieces were displayed for all 7,000 Adobe MAX attendees to see. The artists participated in events at MAX, including photo walks and Twitch live streams.
The campaign started in February 2015, and wrapped in February 2016 – This last year has brought light to the successful creation of content from young artists around the world.
163K+ Followers on Instagram (up from 0 in February 2015)
Over 12K hashtag mentions on social media sites
Over 3.4K projects tagged on Behance
Speaking opportunities for Individual artists through Adobe-related events, including the Microsoft Surface Pro launch in India and the Creative Cloud Conference in Mumbai
Earned media coverage for various #Ps25Under25 artists, including coverage on The Phobolographer, Design-milk, Pistol Magazine and Egyptian Streets.