Syahmz

Phones should add to your interactions, not subtract from them. Based on that simple message, Be Here is a campaign that gently implore its audience (anyone who uses their phone) to rethink their attchment to their phones, to be here not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. In my research, I came across a book that became across a self-help book, entitled How to Break Up with Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life, that became the heart of this project. Utilising several insights and research from the book, I decided to focus on phubbing, which is the blatant usage of phones around people, ignoring them.

It seems like for some of us, we are feeding more into our relationship with our phones than with ourselves and others. However, since social media is unavoidable today, instead of simply instructing others turning their devices off, it would be smarter to educate ourselves by understanding and questioning our relationship with it. This insight leads us to the call to action of this campaign. While there aren’t very many functions on our phones that keep us disconnected for long periods of time, this campaign emphasises the four features that allow us to momentarily disconnect and engage with the people around us. The features (and therefore CTA) are the power button, silent mode, Do Not Disturb mode, and the lock button. 

Instead of instructing others to stop using their phones, Be Here acknowledges that there are moments when having your phone is paramount, whether it’s for communication or to combat anxieties. Therefore, the campaign’s call to action is strategic in the sense that it isn’t too drastic or foreign to the habits of the target audience. 

Another insight discovered was that the target audience know that they need to detox from their devices, yet counterintuitively, they don’t. Therefore, it is important for any campaign championing disconnecting from devices to note that there is an added layer of inertia in the target audience, and so the strategy should reflect that.

Be Here is about being present in the now when you’re with the people you care about. It’s ironic that a device marketed as a way to connect us to other people might actually be driving us apart. With that in mind, this campaign appeals to the relationships in our lives our most immediate connections. In this POV animation, your friend is talking to you about how her partner doesn’t listen to her, but ironically, you’re getting distracted by your phone’s vibrations and notifications.

Speaking to an intelligent audience who are self-aware about the need to disconnect might require a slight pivot in the copy – a softer, more irreverent tone. We aren’t telling the them to stop using their phones altogether, but to introduce breaks and space from their phones when they are with loved ones. For the art direction of this campaign, the posters are copy-driven, and the animation possesses an organic essence that is in line with the message to disconnect.