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At a time when home security products had become a price-driven category and online marketplaces were diluted by no-name, lesser-quality competitors, Master Lock needed a way to set themselves apart. Our research uncovered a key insight: People don’t buy safes and locks for peace of mind. They buy them because they’re responsible for keeping something safe. From that insight, we created the “Master It” campaign, positioning Master Lock as the responsible choice for those who want to master the task at hand.
When creating work for Master Lock’s line of SentrySafe gun safes, our research surfaced four shocking data points: 4.6 million U.S. children live in homes with unlocked, loaded guns; nearly one child per day is involved in an unintentional shooting; 85% of these incidents happen at home; and secure storage reduces the risk of unintentional injury or death by 90%. Together, these established access as the defining factor in preventing harm while helping to reveal a powerful insight: Children cannot reliably comprehend the difference between a real gun and a toy.
For Master Lock, this was a chance to make a difference and help gun owners protect the most important responsibility in their lives—their children. In fact, convincing gun owners to use a gun safe was such a clear opportunity to create positive change that Master Lock saw it as a personal responsibility for the brand.
Since guns are such a divided topic, the real challenge wasn’t simply to inform, but to change behavior without alienating the audience. Rather than addressing beliefs about gun ownership, our strategy focused on distilling a complex safety issue into a shared human truth that defied debate:
Children do not have the capacity fully comprehending the grave difference between a real gun and a toy. So the only real safety measure is to make sure they can’t gain access to firearms.
The solution was a film that doesn’t tell people what to think. It allows them to experience the risk, making the need for secure storage feel immediate, personal and unavoidable.
And it does it in the amount of time than it takes many unintentional shootings to occur—only 15 seconds. By collapsing a complex issue into a single, undeniable realization, “The Difference” reframes gun safety at its core. The result is an intentionally simple film that reinforces secure storage as a fundamental act of responsibility.
If “The Difference” had convinced a single gun owner to store their firearms in a gun safe, the work would have been a success. But after launch, sales of Master Lock’s SentrySafe Pistol Safes jumped by 34% year-over-year. And every safe sold has the opportunity to prevent one of 350 children a year from unintentionally shooting themselves or someone else.
NOTE: RESULTS LISTED ARE CONFIDENTIAL
