"Save the Designers": Freepik's Guerrilla Campaign to Help Creatives Embrace AI

May. 01, 2024

Freepik, the world's leading technology company in the development of creative resources, distribution of graphic and audiovisual content, and generative AI tools, wanted to show that it understands and supports the concerns of designers caused by the rapid evolution of generative AI and its impact on their jobs. Through a bold guerrilla action, Freepik sought to offer an antidote to these justified fears.

Thus, the Malaga company launched the "Save the Designers" action at South by Southwest (SXSW), the annual event that brings together various festivals and conferences on film, interactive media, and music in Austin, Texas (United States). During this event, a group of designers held a demonstration, demanding the designers be saved. This allowed speakers, event participants, and visitors to engage with the designers’ claims, immersing themselves in the issues and reflecting on them. This also generated awareness and visibility for the real concerns of the designers worldwide.

The protesters carried banners that redirected to the website savethedesigners.org, the platform of a fictitious organization that wants to save the collective of designers, even proposing to “adopt” a designer. But all the links on this platform lead to Freepik's AI for Designers portal, the true antidote to fears of AI. For Freepik, this involves embracing AI through knowledge and the use of the best tools.

Thus, the Freepik AI for Designers platform offers the latest AI-powered tools and solutions from the Malaga technology company with the aim of "saving designers", allowing them to better navigate this new era.

Carlos Cantu, CMO of Freepik, explained:

"With this action, we want to show Freepik's commitment to helping anyone create great designs faster, to be able to express the power of their ideas. Furthermore, we have chosen this precise context, SXSW, since this event brings together some of our most important audiences: designers, artificial intelligence enthusiasts, and the technology community. For all these reasons, it has been a round action with surprising results."

 

The global campaign “Save the Designers” generated more than 1 million impressions on social networks, where its Instagram profile had more than 10 thousand interactions, and the landing page received almost 30 thousand visits in a few days.