category finalist
When creating work for Master Lock’s line of SentrySafe gun safes under the brand’s new “Master It” campaign, 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.
This presented such a clear opportunity to create positive change that Master Lock saw it as a personal responsibility for the brand.
The challenge wasn’t simply to inform, but to change behavior without alienating the audience. Rather than addressing beliefs about gun ownership, we focused on access by using 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.
With a small budget to produce a piece for a singular product line, we found the opportunity to house production of the film within a larger Master Lock brand production. The full production was an 18-hour day for multiple brand spots and photography, but we shot the entire “The Difference” film during lunch with a minimal, passionate crew. With lighting and camera crews, art department and a safety coordinator, added cost to the production budget for the film was only $14,000. Our EP even acted as the hand model, and post-production time was donated by the agency. The 15-second film ran on Amazon Video and programmatic online video with a total media spend of only $50,000, bringing the total cost to produce and run the film to only $64,000.
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 is the opportunity to prevent one of 350 children a year from unintentionally shooting themselves or someone else.
NOTE: RESULTS LISTED ARE CONFIDENTIAL
