UKRAINE — When we think of tech companies, our minds are quick to come up with familiar scenes. For startups, it’s garages, caffeine-fueled developers in crumpled T-shirts, and a blur of sleepless nights. As these startups morph into established corporations, the imagery shifts into something more traditional like gleaming glass offices, open-plan workspaces, polished presentations, and high-powered board meetings. These visuals may be grounded in reality, but years of repetition have stripped them of their soul.
In its latest branding campaign, Intellias searches for the signs of life. The company has a typical story of tech-industry success: founded as a small startup, Intellias assembled a team of skilled engineers, grew some muscles on the global market, and now develops technology for big players. Over two decades of growth and opening new offices worldwide, the company has been adamant about holding onto its key value: putting people first. “So when it came to creating a brand awareness campaign for global locations, we wanted to focus on people. Not on the stereotypical image of ‘tech professionals’, but on actual, real people”, says Anna Lebedieva, talent marketing director at Intellias.
To bring this vision to life, the Intellias team turned to a tool as analog as it gets: disposable cameras. With a fixed number of shots and zero chances to retake or edit, they seem antiquated compared to the ability to quickly edit and retake that digital cameras offer today.
“Disposable cameras capture moments as they are—flawed, imperfect, and completely real. That’s what we wanted: raw slices of life from our colleagues around the globe,” explains Anna.
The plan was simple . Seventy cameras were sent to Intellias employees across eight countries, including Poland, Spain, Colombia, and India. The instructions? No perfect poses, no polished setups. Just document life as it happens—the good, the bad, the chaotic, and the mundane.
Two weeks later, the results rolled in: nearly 2,000 photos, each telling a story. From joyful celebrations to messy, relatable moments, these images became the building blocks of the campaign’s centerpiece: a video montage celebrating realness in all its glory.
Unlike using safe, cliché corporate visuals, showing real people means stepping out of comfort zones that we have created. It means being ready to accept your vulnerability. But only by opening up and taking risks can we create true bonding and encourage engineering talents to check our vacancies. The realness of images and situations that they show helps people feel related.
Challenging stereotypes in tech branding can yield big rewards. The video campaign got 4 million views, nearly 6 million impressions, and reached 2.6 million users. “There is a way to show authenticity in tech, even as your company grows global. The key isn’t inventing stories but finding and highlighting real moments. They’re all around us—you just need to notice them and use a simple, creative way to let others see them, too,” says Lebedieva.
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