The March of the Cartridge People — Cartridge People
Cartridge People give customers great value OEM and own brand cartridges with excellent service and prompt delivery. They work hard to ensure their customers can print more. But in a category where retailers are competing on the same metrics — price, range and service — how can we be memorable?
Our Idea — The March of the Cartridge People.
Swapping the category’s usual panic-buy messaging and red-banner discounts for something unexpectedly cinematic.
The ad opens with the silhouette of a woman standing alone in misty woodland, wearing a swimsuit and carrying a printer. A calm voiceover introduces a statuesque ‘Anne’, who refuses to pay ‘silly prices’ to print her wild swimming newsletter. Anne makes her way through the marshes and is followed by a series of equally deadpan characters, including a music promoter who uses black ink like it’s going out of fashion, and a business owner dragging a full-size office printer through the countryside. By treating printer cartridges with the emotional seriousness of arthouse cinema, the campaign turns an otherwise ordinary retail purchase into something quite different.
We made switching to Cartridge People feel like a pilgrimage.
Using System1’s industry-leading Star Rating test, the ad scored 5.2. That rating puts it second in System1’s all-time effectiveness ranking for the category.
