Vicks x The Matrix Campaign

Advertising Campaign - A collaboration between Vicks (DayQuil & NyQuil) and The Matrix Movie.

Tools

Adobe Photoshop CC

Team

1 Art Director & Designer

My Role

Art Direction
Research
Design
Mock Ups

Timeline

1 week (Research, Ideation & Execution)

Overview

The customer journey has evolved, so brands must be more intuitive and strategic with how they present themselves to potential customers. It’s time to dig deeper than magazine ads and flyers.

I was tasked to imagine unique ways to reach the target audience of a selected brand or product, then convince my peers the campaign will work through clear visual direction. I chose Vicks, specifically DayQuil & Nyquil. In order for the campaign to be successful, it would need to take advantage of a specific opportunity.

Brand Research

DayQuil and NyQuil are both products that help alleviate cold and flu symptoms, such as runny nose, coughing, sore throat, fever, headache, and muscle aches. The Daytime version, DayQuil, does not contain ingredients that are known to help with sleep, where NyQuil does.

Problem

How might we better differentiate between DayQuil & Nyquil?

People don’t know the difference between the DayQuil & Nyquil pills so I decided to use the popular movie, The Matrix to explain the difference. The Matrix has a “blue pill, red pill” part of the story which line up perfectly with DayQuil, Nyquil’s brand.

Opportunity

Coincidentally, the new Matrix movie is out and there is a Red Pill, Blue Pill reference in it which Vicks can profit of off for their DayQuil, NyQuil products.

Creative Strategy

People learn better through analogies. Use The Matrix's Red Pill/Blue Pill reference as an analogy

I decided to use the fact that the “Blue Pill” was associated more with sleepiness in the movie. And the “Red Pill” was associated more with being wide awake to illustrate the differences between the 2 pills. I decided to adjust DayQuil’s orange pill color to red for the sake of this ad.