Freepik now includes generative AI tools in its services but there is fear among designers that AI will impact their jobs. The company came up with a bold idea to allay those fears with an antidote – a guerrilla action, Save the Designers, launched at South by Southwest in Texas, built around a fictitious NGO.   

Freepik encouraged designers to hold a demonstration at the event, demanding the designers be saved. This allowed speakers, event participants, and visitors to engage with the designers’ claims, immersing themselves in the issues and reflecting on them. This also generated awareness and visibility for the real concerns of the designers worldwide.

The protesters carried banners that redirected to the website savethedesigners.org, the platform of a fictitious organisation that wants to save the collective of designers, even proposing to “adopt” a designer. But all the links on this platform lead to Freepik’s AI for Designers portal, the true antidote to fears of AI. For Freepik, this involves embracing AI through knowledge and the use of the best tools. The Freepik AI for Designers platform offers the latest AI-powered tools and solutions from the Malaga technology company with the aim of “saving designers”, by allowing them to navigate AI better.

Carlos Cantú, chief marketing officer of Freepik, explained, “With this action, we want to show Freepik’s commitment to helping anyone create great designs faster, to be able to express the power of their ideas. Furthermore, we have chosen this precise context, SXSW, since this event brings together some of our most important audiences: designers, artificial intelligence enthusiasts, and the technology community. For all these reasons, it has been a round action with surprising results.”

The global campaign generated more than 1 million impressions on social networks, where its Instagram profile had more than 10 thousand interactions, and the landing page received almost 30 thousand visits in a few days.