A few months ago, George and Luke Lois were approached by SOMA, a successful communications app for smartphones founded by Lei Guo and Oliver Hayento (and the fastest-growing app in China, the Mid-East, North Africa and Latin America) to advertise their launch in the U.S.
“We canned their uncommunicative app icon (a problem since it was designed by their CEO) and designed a new logo for them,” George told me, “that included an app icon of a face, that reads as two faces, nose-to-nose, closely connected and conversing with each other.” They also produced a striking ad campaign with the admonition, “SAY NO TO SKYPE, TO WHATSAPP, TO VIBER … SAY YES TO SOMA. THE WORLD’S MOST SECURE COMMUNICATIONS APP. TECHNOLOGY MARCHES ON!”
“The app icon is the star of the game,” George adds. “We built it into the ‘NO,’ but making it a miserable face … while of course, having a shit-eating grin in the SOMA logo.” Their website shows the icon in action as it drives the SOMA information throughout the site.
George is concerned that the “wholesale seizing of law-abiding citizens’ business and personal data is bound to rear its ugly face in the general elections, and SOMA (and I) believe security and privacy are necessary to protect our civil liberties—so I’m proud to be at the forefront of the fight.”
The campaign launches at Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco with a billboard …
… And with over 90 news racks throughout the area they are calling Super Bowl City (with client Oliver Hayen in front of one):
Enter Print’s 2016 RDA today—Early Bird Deadline is Feb. 5!
