In praise of the most creative act
When it came to advertising a specialist photography studio, Luca da Ouro found a winning formula close to home.
It is fair to say that Os Bebês da Lhai is one of the less well-known brands that has featured among the winners at the Cresta Awards. But this boutique photography studio in Brazil earns its place on the simple merit of doing the basics of highly creative communication extremely well: making a strong emotional connection through striking images that combine craft, wit and a great product demo all in one.
Creative director Lucas da Ouro of agency Tuppi Criatividade was challenged with the need to seductively sell how the studio specialised in maternity, newborn and children portraiture. In particular, the newborn market had seen lots of growth but communications in the area were poor. Many of the competing pitches in the market put out very similar clichéd pictures of babies that even the parents might do well to tell apart.
Os Bebês da Lhai bought into a different approach, one that pitched its services with a creative storytelling. The challenge was to photograph a baby just 18 days old in a different way.
Where better to draw inspiration than from some of the great masters of image-making, with reference to classic painted portraits that many would recall while seeing in new form? Every baby is a masterpiece, after all.
And so Lucas and his co-art director Daniel Nunes, copywriter Felipe Queiroz and creative consultant Daniel da Hora, chose to share their work with the supporting artists Frida Kahlo, Johannes Vermeer and Leonardo da Vinci.
But for the talents of the model used, well, Lucas has to thank somebody not from the distant past, but very close to home. Take a bow, Letícia de Ouro, very much a home-grown production. One day that Cresta Silver trophy for Outstanding Photography will be hers.
