Swatch x We Are Not Really Strangers

The brief

A complete concept-to-campaign research project in collaboration with Swiss watchmaker Swatch and card game We Are Not Really Strangers. Working with two other creatives, we stepped into the World of Play, uncovering our key insight: that Gen Z men increasingly struggle to form and maintain close friendships.

Objective

Swatch struggles to appeal to Gen Z; it isn’t seen as culturally relevant or “cool.” We repositioned Swatch as a modern, emotionally relevant brand for Gen Z.

The idea

From our research, the key problem our target audience faced is that Gen Z men increasingly struggle to form and maintain close friendships, leading to loneliness and a sense of emotional disconnection, despite being socially active and professionally driven. However, Gen Z navigates adulthood through novelty and nostalgia, finding comfort and meaning in shared memories. We need to show that connection is possible by reframing time spent together as something simple, playful, and meaningful, so that young men rediscover fulfilment through friendship and emotional connection, not just work, productivity, or individual success.

Time Spent Together is Time Well Spent.

Strategy

We worked in two key phases:

Phase One

Key message: “When did play stop being part of growing up?”

Purpose: Disrupt Gen Z men’s autopilot and invite reflection on friendship, play, and connection.

Strategy: Phase One uses nostalgia and open-ended prompts to spark reflection and conversation about lost play and friendship, without forcing emotional disclosure.

Phase Two

Key message: “Growing up doesn’t mean growing apart.”

Purpose: Normalise emotional connection between men and position Swatch as a brand that enables meaningful time together. Only after emotional relevance is established does the product feel earned.

Strategy: Show connection in action, using real conversations to position Swatch as a symbol of time invested in friendship.

Timeline & Execution

The campaign was set to roll out across the span of a month, starting with social media callouts and teasing the collaboration. This then moved into creator seeding, with insights derived directly from our research, and then a collaboration reveal.

The product launch followed shortly after, which ultimately came with our video launch.

Video Launch

The video campaign showed our entire campaign, in and out. The purpose was to give a platform for conversations to exist online and in real life, and it proved to work.

Outcome

We received a grade of 9.0, putting us in the top 3% of grades, equivalent to a 4.0 GPA.