Valspar: Color For The Colorblind
Valspar wanted to differentiate itself in a crowded, functional paint market dominated by price and durability. FCB Chicago was tasked with making the brand more emotionally resonant. They targeted a broad audience of homeowners by highlighting Valspar's authority on color, aiming to shift brand perception from a utility to an essential part of the human experience.
Creative Idea
Partnered with tech innovators to give colorblind people the gift of sight through paint.
Valspar partnered with EnChroma to create glasses that allow colorblind people to see color for the first time, transforming paint from a functional commodity into a medium for profound emotional connection and human experience.
The Moment Dorothy Opened the Door to Oz
From Functional Utility to Emotional Authority
The campaign achieved a massive 800 million media impressions in its first month, successfully shifting Valspar’s brand sentiment by 10 points. While the paint category traditionally focused on price and durability, this initiative transformed Valspar into a purpose-led brand. The commercial impact was immediate; the demand for the featured technology was so high that EnChroma glasses sold out within thirty days of the launch.
The Search for the Impossible
Director John X. Carey, known for the Dove "Real Beauty Sketches," captured the raw reactions of participants like Andrew, Atlee, and Keith. The production team initially aimed to simulate colorblindness but pivoted to enabling sight after an exhaustive search for optical technology. This led to the partnership with EnChroma, a Berkeley-based tech company. To scale the conversation, the agency sent custom kits to colorblind public figures, including Bill Clinton and Mark Zuckerberg, sparking a global dialogue under the #ColorForAll hashtag.
Beyond the Screen
Valspar extended the experience into the physical world by installing specialized posters in retail stores. These displays featured colors typically indistinguishable to colorblind individuals, paired with EnChroma glasses to help customers choose paint for their homes. The brand also partnered with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago, donating glasses for colorblind patrons to use in the galleries. This "Wizard of Oz" moment - moving from a muted existence to vibrant saturation - inspired a viral trend of independent reaction videos that dominated YouTube in March 2015.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
A paint brand with a deep expertise in the science and emotional impact of color.
Category
Paint brands typically focus on functional attributes like durability, price, and DIY ease.
Customer
People who take the beauty of the world for granted and those excluded from the experience.
Culture
The rise of purpose-led marketing and the viral potential of authentic, high-stakes emotional human stories.
Company
A paint brand with a deep expertise in the science and emotional impact of color.
Category
Paint brands typically focus on functional attributes like durability, price, and DIY ease.
Strategy:
Elevate a functional commodity by demonstrating its profound emotional necessity to those who are deprived of it.
Customer
People who take the beauty of the world for granted and those excluded from the experience.
Culture
The rise of purpose-led marketing and the viral potential of authentic, high-stakes emotional human stories.
Strategy:
Elevate a functional commodity by demonstrating its profound emotional necessity to those who are deprived of it.
Strategy Technique
Dramatize the Invisible Benefit
By enabling those who cannot see color to experience it, Valspar moves beyond selling cans of paint to demonstrating the life-changing power of their core product: color itself.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Conduct an Experiment
The campaign uses a documentary-style experiment to capture the raw, unscripted emotional reactions of colorblind individuals seeing the full spectrum for the first time, proving the brand's commitment to color.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft is exceptional due to its masterful use of cinematography and storytelling to convey a deeply personal and transformative experience. The emotional resonance is achieved through intimate character studies and a powerful visual transition from a world of gray to a world of vibrant color.
The use of close-ups and shallow depth of field creates an intimate connection with the participants, while the transition to vibrant, wide-angle shots during the reveal effectively mirrors their emotional journey.
The simple yet profound opening question and the poignant personal anecdotes create a compelling narrative that builds empathy and sets the stage for the product reveal.
