D&AD NBA 2025 — Depop

Working in Digital Media Teams was a module providing an opportunity to collaborate with fellow team members on a digital project brief, and to develop project management skills. It allowed us to polish our existing skills and work through any challenges collaboratively.

As part of the D&AD New Blood Awards 2025 briefs, my team decided to produce a marketing campaign for Depop, a second-hand clothing website. This campaign was to be centred at young adults aged 18 to 34 in order to address greater competition in the second-hand clothing market. The brief asked to steer away from traditional advertising techniques, and to create something unique but broad enough to target all styles and trends in fashion.

We began the project with research into Depop as a brand and current trends in second-hand fashion. This was in order to explore any gaps in the marketing, find out what would attract our target audience to use Depop, and use it as a basis for our artefacts.

Our research conducted through surveys has shown that potential audiences are attracted to incentives, such as loyalty schemes, as well as active campaign that aims to promote the benefits of circular fashion, such as a variety of styles available and a positive contribution to the environment. The results meant that we needed to create something that is unique and brings back Depop as the centre of discussion.

Research also guided us through the prototyping stages, where we were creating plans and ideas for potential final products. Through user testing, we were able to improve and adapt our designs according to the target audience's expectations.

In response to user research and testing, we decided to incorporate guerilla marketing into our campaign. This unconventional approach to advertising allowed us to advertise the brand to our target audience using various forms of advertising — both digital and physical.

The final artefacts produced for this campaign include: a concept fashion bus tour for showcasing different fashion styles, a print poster campaign of people wearing products from Depop as a way of building community and sustainability habits, a video advert for social media showcasing various scenarios where Depop can help in fashion, posters using denim scraps to promote healthy consumer habits, and a loyalty card scheme for sellers.

Each team member was split into specific roles during the project, which were important at its specific stages. As the project developer, I was responsible for all things digital and visual. I contributed to the project during production of the posters, as well as the social media adverts.

With both artefacts, I first conducted research by looking into previously produced content for use as a guide. Then, I produced first prototypes of the posters, as well as inspected possible camera shots to be used for filming the advert. Finally, I was one of the co-directors responsible for filming and photographing the elements necessary.

Photographs for the posters were made in a television studio, with models standing in various poses against a white background. The photographs were enhanced with on-site lighting, as well as constant experimentation, allowing the designers to later produce the final posters.

Filming was conducted in various areas around Leeds city centre, as well as in other locations such as a ski resort or beach. Later, it was put together into one video to help promote universal use of Depop.

This project taught me that with such a large scale undertaking, it is very valuable to constantly experiment with new designs and techniques according to your abilities. Creating new products is a constant cycle of experimentation, where you learn what works and what doesn't. This approach became very beneficial for me, because it taught me about being open to creativity and options both personally and professionally.

Furthermore, I also learned about the value of collaborative work with other team members. A key part of this was compromise, as there were many creative differences between team members. Finding a common ground allowed us to further proceed and complete all our products for the project. Therefore, negotiation is key also for the team's morale, allowing them to stay motivated.