Are people fed up with digital life? At least, that seems to be the case judging by how people have responded to Polaroid’s recent campaigns. As an analogue camera brand, Polaroid is encouraging people to live a more analogue life – and its target audience seems to like the idea. Head of Brand Strategy Dovile Banyte, who will speak at the Baltic Brand Forum in September, talks about the company’s philosophy and how she came to work for the legendary brand.

“AI can’t generate sand between your toes.” “No one on their deathbed ever said: I wish I’d spent more time on my phone.” “Remember that night we spent on our phones? Me neither. ”

These are some of the messages used in last year’s Polaroid Flip campaign – a clear pushback against spending our lives glued to smart devices. The campaign won several awards and was also shortlisted at Cannes Lions.

Its impact went beyond awards. In a sense, the messages gave the entire brand a new direction, and the same approach continued in this year’s campaign for the Go Gen 3 camera. For example, an ad was placed on Coney Island beach with the message: “Go jump in some water before the data centers drink it all up.”

An emotional layer is essential

“We’re not against AI or digital technology,” Banyte says. “It would be foolish to say that. But we do see that there is too much digital technology in our lives. It affects our relationships, we watch brainrot, and our IQ is declining. We want to say that the best life is real life. If you take even one photo with a Polaroid, that means you’re spending that much less time on your phone.”

The campaign took around a year to develop, and by the time it was released, digital fatigue had become a much more widely discussed issue. Polaroid had tapped into the zeitgeist. Initially, the plan was to focus on product innovation, but the team quickly realised that this did not evoke much emotion in people.

“After that, we stopped thinking about how to sell our product and started thinking about why we even exist in the age of artificial intelligence,” Banyte says of how the creative concept emerged. “Why should anyone care about us at all? That’s how we arrived at a campaign that reflects who we are. There is so much beauty in the world. Things happen when you’re offline, and you have to enjoy them. You can see that more and more people are realising how far we’ve gone and what smartphone addiction is doing to young people.”

According to the Lithuanian brand strategist, the company’s leadership also understood that marketing cannot simply be a list of selling points.

“Our advertising is emotional,” she says. “As I said, we can’t only think about how to sell cameras; we have to think about why anyone should care about us in the first place. That emotional layer has to be there. It’s what helps you cut through the noise. Understanding people was the holy grail of advertising agencies ten years ago, and it still is today. At the same time, everything we do is aimed at delivering business results. We don’t make advertising just to have fun ourselves. Changing brand perception requires both science and art. To convince the leadership team, I’ve used System1 materials and Effie-winning case studies that demonstrate how emotional advertising drives business growth.”

The campaign reached people at a time when many were not even aware that Polaroid was still in business. That is hardly surprising: the company’s story in the 21st century has been complicated. It has gone bankrupt once and subsequently changed owners several times.

She didn’t want to become a banker

Banyte’s own career path has not been a straight line either. She studied economics at university and later spent several years working as a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Amsterdam.

She first came to the Netherlands through the Erasmus programme. “I really liked the education system there. In Lithuania, you had to memorise a lot; in the Netherlands, there was more teamwork,” she recalls.

Banyte later returned to the Netherlands for her master’s degree, landed an internship at PwC and subsequently stayed on to work there. All her fellow students wanted to become bankers. She did not. Consulting initially seemed exciting, but over time it began to feel boring. Her team focused on investigating financial crime and money laundering.

“Everyone thought I had a dream job: I wore high heels, travelled around and stayed in five-star hotels. But I simply didn’t want to work in that field anymore,” she recalls. “But I did learn discipline and professionalism.”

In 2014, she enrolled at Miami Ad School to study social media and digital marketing. The decision was frightening because it meant leaving her existing job, but everything worked out well, and the new career suited her much better.

“I like exploring why people behave the way they do,” she says. “People are irrational, and I feel that advertising allows me to combine my analytical and creative sides.”

Author: Siim Kera, TULI

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