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Designed for Success: The secret of winning creativity

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By Justin Pearse, Managing Director, The Drum Works

June 25, 2015 | 4 min read

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Designed for Success: The secret of winning creativity

The Drum, in association with JKR, is catching up with some of this year’s Cannes Lions award winners to discover the secrets of their success.

The Product Design Grand Prix was awarded to the Lucky Iron Fish project, created by Geometry Global.

The campaign addressed a huge social issue in Cambodia.With the national diet mostly restricted fish and rice, a large amount of the population suffers from an iron deficiency.

Although a simple solution was available, adding a piece of iron to the pot in which the family meal was cooked, giving up to 75% of daily needs, people were reluctant to put the iron block into their food.

So the campaign turned the block of iron into the shape of a fish, a symbol of hope and good luck in Cambodia.

The results were incredible, with a 55% drop in iron deficiency recorded after nine months.

For Ben Knight, executive creative director, Geometry Global, the key to the success of the campaign was simplicity.

“This was a real solution to a real problem. People immediately identified with it because it simply worked immediately. As soon as you start using it your energy levels start to change, and so you start telling everyone you know about it,” he said.

In fact the campaign was so successful it is now going to be rolled out globally, to address iron deficiency issues throughout the world.“This wasn’t even really a campaign. A normal campaign runs for six to eight weeks, this is an initiative that will keep going, spreading throughout the world,” said Knight. “We’re incredibly honoured to be a part of it.”

The Lucky Iron Fish company’s core beliefs were at the heart of each aspect of the campaign, said Knight. Everything was sustainable as possible, from the palm leaf packaging to the recycled iron of the fish itself, and the local jobs in Cambodia it produced.

This is why we work in design. Design isn’t about veneer. Or putting 'top spin’ on the brand ball. It’s not the logo, or the box, or the wrapper. Or the header on the stationary.

When it’s done well it is the solution. The answer to the problem. Done so effortlessly that it seems inconceivable that it wasn’t always here. And it makes problems become pleasures. Who enjoyed vacuuming before the Dyson was invented?

And Lucky Iron Fish is up there with the best. Meeting a human need with such charm. Removing a debilitation and replacing it with delight.

Functionally this could have been delivered in any form but it was thought up as a fish. Why? Because why not? Cos it captured the hearts and minds of a nation. And you’re gonna talk about a fish, instead of the ‘Iron-agitator’TM or whatever silly name these things are usually given.

When you’re having to solve a real, deep challenge you have to swim against the tide.

Lee Rolston

Strategy Director, jkr

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