Campaign Story #03 - DKT
Social Media CampaignPorto/Braga2024
Client
DKT (Marshmallow, Miss Lemonade and Unkeeper brands)
Agency
Creative Lemons
Location
Porto/Braga
Industry
School supplies
Deliverables
150 images
Usage
Website · Social
The year was 2024 and I was reaching out to local agencies — as you do when you’re freelancing.
As usual, I approached just a few agencies — the ones I thought I would be a good fit for — and was ready to give it a little time. One of the agencies was Creative Lemons.
Now for the interesting part: they e-mailed me back the following day saying they were working on a project I would be a good fit for. What are the odds?
Since they were local, we set up a meeting for the following day and they gave me a quick brief.
Three brands of the same group needed a lot of content for Social Media. The general idea was to celebrate going back to school, keeping everything very fresh and sunny, but also trendy enough for social media.
The Brief
Local brand group, DKT
Backpacks and school supplies over three different brands (Marshmallow, Miss Lemonade and Unkeeper)
3 day shoot
Lots of images needed (150!)
There would be a video team working alongside me
Summery vibe, but keep it trendy
Unfortunately, I was only available for the first 2 days and I absolutely thought I wouldn’t get the job.
But to my surprise, they still agreed and found a second photographer to be there on the 3rd day.
And by pure luck, whatever commitment I had on the third day (I honestly don’t remember what it was) got cancelled last minute so I still showed up for Day 3.
The Challenge
Constraints
150 images in 3 days
5 different locations (House and Restaurant in Porto | Park, Basketball field and School in Braga)
Working alongside a video team, meaning having to manage spaces and lights separately
I already had something booked for the 3rd day of production
Timing
July 29th | Porto - Restaurant in the Morning, House in the Afternoon ~50 images
July 30th | Braga - Park in the Morning, Basketball field in the Afternoon ~50 images
July 31st | Braga - School ~50 images
Delivery in two weeks
The Production
Run and gun was the name of the game
DAY 1
Morning
Call time was at 9:00 AM at Antù, a restaurant in Porto. The restaurant was closed for the morning and the agency had booked it for this production.
Right ouf of the gate, I knew the biggest challenge would be the space. The restaurant not being very big wouldn’t usually be a problem, but since I’d be working alongside the video team, that meant I had to wait for them to finish shooting before I could start setting up any lights.
The space was beautiful and I wish I had had more time to take full advantage of it. I had less than 1h of shooting time and had to make it count. In the end, I think I came up with some good images, but I definitely wish I could have had more time in this location.
On the plus side, I feel like being able to deliver in short amounts of time is a skill I’ve been developing over the years thanks to similar situations. In that sense, this was a great exercise in creativity.
Afternoon
After lunch things were a bit easier, regarding space and timings.
We were at this really nice house in Porto and I coordinated with the video team, making sure I’d be shooting by the pool area while they were doing video inside. Then we would switch.
I ended up spending most of my time on the outside, by the pool, because there was a lot of video content to be done inside the house. It was a hot summer day, so I have zero complaints about that!
All in all, it was a fun and productive afternoon. I used a mix of natural and artificial lighting to create images that would ultimately fit the brief I was given.
Shoutout to my friend Joana, who was an unofficial assistant on Day 1.
DAY 2
Day 2 was Park + Basketball field day. We had scouted the places beforehand and decided to shoot the park in the morning and the basketball field in the afternoon.
The day started out very calm, in a nice park with lots of shaded areas. Then came the afternoon: under the Portuguese Summer scorching sun, shooting in the middle of a basketball field. Fun! I got a nice sunburn to remember the day by :)
Thankfully we were provided with water (a lot of water, I can’t stress how hot it was!) and our young models were super nice and professional, even under such circumstances.
This was also the only day we had male models, for Unkeeper.
I think I only used artificial light in one of the images from this day. And even then, it was just fill flash that you can barely notice — it lifts the shadows juuuust enough, but it’s very subtle.
In the end, it was all about making the most of both locations and using the scouting work we had done before to our advantage: we knew where the sun would be and at what time so we could plan accordingly.
Remember, kids: proper planning saves lives.
DAY 3
The day I wasn’t supposed to be available.
We had an entire school for ourselves. The students were already on vacation so we were able to book the whole thing for this production. The school had colorful corridors that would make for nice backgrounds and I think that was probably the main reason why the agency picked it.
The main challenge for the day was definitely having to set up and then take down multiple setups: inside a classroom, on three different corridors and outside. I told you running and gunning was the name of the game and I wasn’t lying!
As you can probably tell, this day called for some softer lighting. Still, there were a couple of situations in which I was able to add a bit of my signature look. Versatility is a good tool to have, right?
As a bonus, here’s a quick behind-the-scenes video taken straight from the agency’s Instagram stories:
Outcome
After client approval, the files were delivered on time and used throughout Social Media and Website. My sunburn was healed by the time I delilvered the final images :)
It was definitely a challenge to shoot and deliver this many images, but it goes to show that planning ahead makes (almost) anything possible.
Credits
Agency: Creative Lemons
Photography + Post-Production: Diego Veríssimo
Photography Assistant (Day 1): Joana Matos
BTS Footage: Creative Lemons