DesignStudio crafts Depop’s first global ad campaign alongside internal team

App-based swap shop Depop has launched its first global ad campaign, and it’s evidently thinking big, with stations in both the London Underground system and the New York Subway network finding themselves playing host to a series of posters intended as “a celebration of its creative and diverse entrepreneurial community.”

Utilising user bios taken directly from the platform, Depop’s CEO Maria Raga, says the point of the campaign, “is to highlight our community – the different styles, different subcultures and vast creative expressions across our platform,” with sellers being shown in a new light.

They’ve worked with DesignStudio – who recently gave Evernote’s iconic elephant mascot a contemporary re-rub – to make this happen. Oh, and Depop’s very own Brigita Žižytė shot the photos for the campaign.

The brand’s digital and social campaign, a further 20 bios co-created with users and Depop, will launch simultaneously across major cities worldwide such as Los Angeles, as well as key universities across the USA. Print ads will also appear in cultural magazines such as PUSH. The campaign creates a new platform for Depop to celebrate the self-expression of their sellers.

Depop’s Octavia Pendrill-Adams, an art director at the app, says, ""Capturing the unique style of our sellers was important to us. This is why we decided to use our in-house photographer Brigita Zizyte. And to involve our creative team to work closely with DesignStudio to bring it to life."

“We didn’t just want to work with the users with the most followers – we wanted to collaborate with people using their bios as creative opportunities,” says DesignStudio’s Louie Zeegen, the project’s lead copywriter. They’ve looked for a diverse range of users, so as to avoid falling in a vintage Supreme-clad streetwear trap. Some of those bios, alas, contained the kind of words that you can’t plaster all over tube stations and subway stops, so Louie was tasked with “WhatsApping, texting, good old-fashioned telephoning those users to co-edit their bios – keeping it pretty informal, asking how’d they describe their styles or Depop shop,” which he describes as being “great fun.”

Carmen Dowling, DesignStudio’s senior designer on the Depop campaign, admits that, “of course, the main purpose is buying and selling cool stuff,” but tells It’s Nice That, “ the community has taken it beyond that, using it as a platform to express themselves and inspire each other. People sell things that represent themselves or their style, it’s more than just the items. In my opinion the weirder, the better.”

The best thing that Carmen’s ever seen on the platform is “earrings made from McDonald’s salt sachets,” while Louie’s best find to date is a pair of “laughably-sized Common Projects that would have cost a laughable amount of money had they been new.”

Louie, it transpires, has feet that’d make the average clown blush.