The Atomic Blog

Atomic’s relaunch of Polaroid at CES 2010

Atomic signed on with Polaroid in Q4 of 2009 to relaunch the brand at CES in January, 2010. While the assignment was not without its challenges - a recent Polaroid bankruptcy, a scandal involving Polaroid’s former ownership, and a perception that the brand was behind the times on the photo scene, the multi-disciplinary Atomic team assembled for the campaign from our offices in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco were all wildly enthusiastic to make a contribution to the iconic brand’s future.

The agency team crafted a solid media re-education program to clarify Polaroid’s fundamental brand positioning, and correct standing misconceptions about the scandal and bankruptcy before the re-launch at CES in an effort to increase the accuracy of the Polaroid story and hopefully focus more attention on the brand’s future in coverage that would eventually come out of CES. The CES portion of the campaign focused on Polaroid’s future as a brand bringing the best parts of “instant” into the digital era - introducing new ownership, a new business model, a new set of partners and a new product roadmap.

Atomic also worked with William Morris Endeavor Entertainment to conceive a celebrity tie-in for Polaroid, and to publicize the brand’s exciting new relationship with pop star Lady Gaga, whose Haus of Gaga design team is working with Polaroid on a special line of multimedia products to be released later in the year.

The press conferences, media outreach, social media engagement and on the ground presence Atomic managed at CES produced one of the Top 10 stories coming out of the event, generating more than 850 million impressions - triple that of prior years. Atomic was confirmed as Polaroid’s AOR after CES and we’re off and running on the next round of exciting programs; beginning with Polaroid’s presence at the Tribeca Film Festival. Read the full Polaroid CES 2010 case study here.