IPLN Expériences film shoot: an instructor holding a camera faces a group of smiling participants
IPLN Expériences film shoot: an instructor holding a camera faces a group of smiling participants
IPLN Expériences film shoot: an instructor holding a camera faces a group of smiling participants

Art direction

Copywriting

Social Media

Brand strategy

Influence

Marketing Strategy

WALIBI

IPLN: expertise for sale

IPLN: expertise for sale

Art direction

Copywriting

Social Media

Brand strategy

Influence

Marketing Strategy

IPLN

KEY FIGURES

of partnership, from 2019 to 2025

of partnership, from 2019 to 2025

6 years

6 years

online sales, from €700k in 2020 to €12M in 2025

online sales, from €700k in 2020 to €12M in 2025

×17

×17

of development to launch ipln.fr

of development to launch ipln.fr

10 months

10 months

SECTORS

SECTORS

Tech

PERIOD

PERIOD

2019 – 2025

ACTORS

ACTORS

Picture Element
Share Bien
Picture Element
Share Bien

OVERVIEW

Summary

You can buy a camera anywhere. Advice from a true enthusiast is harder to find.

From 2019 to 2025, Picture Element supported IPLN, the Studient family’s camera shop in Lyon, as it developed its online business. After social media and manufacturer campaigns, we led the creation of the ipln.fr e-commerce website and designed its creator affiliate programme, both launched in 2021. Our guiding aim was to make advice and recommendations a reason to choose IPLN.

The finding

Camera bodies and lenses are the same at every retailer, and the big platforms compete on price. What sets IPLN apart is what a product page cannot show: staff who actually shoot, loyal customers, and creators who recommend the shop. In spring 2020, that capital lived mostly in-store, and lockdown cut it off from its customers.

From then on, one question drove everything: why buy your next camera from IPLN rather than anywhere else?

The stakes

Selling online without becoming just another website. When the Studient family made online sales a priority in 2020, the challenge was to bring to the web what gives the shop its value: advice, trust and community. And to keep pace with an enthusiast's business, driven by embargoed camera releases, manufacturer promotions and peak moments like Black Friday.

The angle

Turning creators into the shop's best salespeople. We came up with a personal creator code, inspired by Fortnite. It is tied to the customer's account at sign-up rather than to a 24-hour cookie, and asks creators for neither content nor exclusivity. Each creator has a page on ipln.fr featuring their gear, ready to buy in one click. Advice now has faces, and every recommendation leads straight to the basket.

The device

Picture Element led the build of ipln.fr: ten months of development, a team of around fifteen people (UX, art direction, front-end, servers, copywriting, SEO) and technical suppliers coordinated by the agency, through to launch on 17 June 2021. From day one, the site brought together the creator programme, the IPLN More subscription, certified pre-owned gear and split payment; BACK ipln, the trade-in module, followed in October.

For the next three years, we acted as the brand's in-house communications team: social media, a weekly newsletter, product pages, campaigns with Sony, Canon, Nikon and Panasonic, Black Friday, and the launch of IPLN Academy in 2024. For the opening of IPLN Paris in October 2024, Share Bien brought the creators on board.

As IPLN built its own marketing team, we refocused on art direction for the major moments: the IPLN Awards and the launch of IPLN Expériences in 2025.

The result

From 2020 to 2025, IPLN's online sales grew from €700,000 to €12 million. Between 2021 and 2024, the company went from 8 to 26 employees, and ipln.fr was ranked No. 1 in its category in Capital's 2025 e-commerce ranking, a position it kept in 2026. In January 2025, the regional daily Le Progrès described a brand “taking off nationally”. Two months later, IPLN's managing director Douglas Studient publicly thanked “PICTURE ELEMENT, with whom Ipln.fr was launched”.

Today IPLN relies on its own marketing team and runs two shops, in Lyon and Paris. The website and creator programme we launched together remain at the heart of the brand.

Summary

You can buy a camera anywhere. Advice from a true enthusiast is harder to find.

From 2019 to 2025, Picture Element supported IPLN, the Studient family’s camera shop in Lyon, as it developed its online business. After social media and manufacturer campaigns, we led the creation of the ipln.fr e-commerce website and designed its creator affiliate programme, both launched in 2021. Our guiding aim was to make advice and recommendations a reason to choose IPLN.

The finding

Camera bodies and lenses are the same at every retailer, and the big platforms compete on price. What sets IPLN apart is what a product page cannot show: staff who actually shoot, loyal customers, and creators who recommend the shop. In spring 2020, that capital lived mostly in-store, and lockdown cut it off from its customers.

From then on, one question drove everything: why buy your next camera from IPLN rather than anywhere else?

The stakes

Selling online without becoming just another website. When the Studient family made online sales a priority in 2020, the challenge was to bring to the web what gives the shop its value: advice, trust and community. And to keep pace with an enthusiast's business, driven by embargoed camera releases, manufacturer promotions and peak moments like Black Friday.

The angle

Turning creators into the shop's best salespeople. We came up with a personal creator code, inspired by Fortnite. It is tied to the customer's account at sign-up rather than to a 24-hour cookie, and asks creators for neither content nor exclusivity. Each creator has a page on ipln.fr featuring their gear, ready to buy in one click. Advice now has faces, and every recommendation leads straight to the basket.

The device

Picture Element led the build of ipln.fr: ten months of development, a team of around fifteen people (UX, art direction, front-end, servers, copywriting, SEO) and technical suppliers coordinated by the agency, through to launch on 17 June 2021. From day one, the site brought together the creator programme, the IPLN More subscription, certified pre-owned gear and split payment; BACK ipln, the trade-in module, followed in October.

For the next three years, we acted as the brand's in-house communications team: social media, a weekly newsletter, product pages, campaigns with Sony, Canon, Nikon and Panasonic, Black Friday, and the launch of IPLN Academy in 2024. For the opening of IPLN Paris in October 2024, Share Bien brought the creators on board.

As IPLN built its own marketing team, we refocused on art direction for the major moments: the IPLN Awards and the launch of IPLN Expériences in 2025.

The result

From 2020 to 2025, IPLN's online sales grew from €700,000 to €12 million. Between 2021 and 2024, the company went from 8 to 26 employees, and ipln.fr was ranked No. 1 in its category in Capital's 2025 e-commerce ranking, a position it kept in 2026. In January 2025, the regional daily Le Progrès described a brand “taking off nationally”. Two months later, IPLN's managing director Douglas Studient publicly thanked “PICTURE ELEMENT, with whom Ipln.fr was launched”.

Today IPLN relies on its own marketing team and runs two shops, in Lyon and Paris. The website and creator programme we launched together remain at the heart of the brand.

PIC TOUCH

Being online before anyone else.

In photography, new cameras are released under embargo, at the same time for every retailer: the first site ready captures the pre-orders of the most eager buyers. We ran every launch like a countdown, with visuals, product pages and the newsletter ready before the embargo lifted, then published together with IPLN's web team. On 24 May 2022, the day Canon announced the EOS R7 and R10, IPLN had product pages, visuals and pre-orders live that morning, ahead of the competition. In 2023, the countdown became a method, with milestones at D-21, D-15 and D-3.

Douglas, Rony and Dylan Studient, the three brothers running IPLN, in a portrait against a dark background

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Announcement visual for the opening of IPLN Paris on 22 October, featuring the Eiffel Tower

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IPLN Academy page on ipln.fr: 50+ courses, 11 instructors, 300+ hours of content

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IPLN Awards 2025 YouTube thumbnail: “6,000 people prefer these products”, surrounded by the creators

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Robotic camera arm silhouetted in the studio on the IPLN Expériences film set

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Aerial drone shot of a race circuit for the IPLN Expériences drone workshop

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PIC TOUCH

Being online before anyone else.

In photography, new cameras are released under embargo, at the same time for every retailer: the first site ready captures the pre-orders of the most eager buyers. We ran every launch like a countdown, with visuals, product pages and the newsletter ready before the embargo lifted, then published together with IPLN's web team. On 24 May 2022, the day Canon announced the EOS R7 and R10, IPLN had product pages, visuals and pre-orders live that morning, ahead of the competition. In 2023, the countdown became a method, with milestones at D-21, D-15 and D-3.

IPLN Expériences film shoot: an instructor holding a camera faces a group of smiling participants

THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT IT

« Bravo à vous pour la superbe DA […]. Des landing pages de folie, du contenu éducatif en vidéo et en rédac. Chapeau, c’est sans doute l’une des opérations les plus complètes que l’on ait jamais faites en termes de couverture ! »

« Bravo à vous pour la superbe DA […]. Des landing pages de folie, du contenu éducatif en vidéo et en rédac. Chapeau, c’est sans doute l’une des opérations les plus complètes que l’on ait jamais faites en termes de couverture ! »

Douglas Studient

Douglas Studient

Managing Director, IPLN

Managing Director, IPLN

THE FIGURES IN DETAIL

6 years

of partnership, from 2019 to 2025

of partnership, from 2019 to 2025

6 years

of partnership, from 2019 to 2025

6 years

of partnership, from 2019 to 2025

×17

online sales, from €700k in 2020 to €12M in 2025

online sales, from €700k in 2020 to €12M in 2025

×17

online sales, from €700k in 2020 to €12M in 2025

×17

online sales, from €700k in 2020 to €12M in 2025

10 months
10 months

of development to launch ipln.fr

of development to launch ipln.fr

of development to launch ipln.fr

10 months

of development to launch ipln.fr

50+

creators in the affiliate programme

creators in the affiliate programme

50+

creators in the affiliate programme

50+

creators in the affiliate programme

No. 1
No. 1

in its category in Capital's 2025 e-commerce ranking

in its category in Capital's 2025 e-commerce ranking

in its category in Capital's 2025 e-commerce ranking

No. 1

in its category in Capital's 2025 e-commerce ranking

  1. First Black Friday with creators for Images Photo Lyon

  2. Lockdown: click-and-collect, remote sales and manufacturer promotions with creators

  3. Launch of ipln.fr: Images Photo Lyon Numérique becomes IPLN

  4. BACK ipln: trade-in and certified pre-owned gear

  5. Launch of IPLN Academy

  6. Opening of IPLN Paris, in the 10th arrondissement

  7. IPLN Awards: 108 products, 12 categories, over 6,000 votes

  8. Launch film for IPLN Expériences

  1. First Black Friday with creators for Images Photo Lyon

  2. Lockdown: click-and-collect, remote sales and manufacturer promotions with creators

  3. Launch of ipln.fr: Images Photo Lyon Numérique becomes IPLN

  4. BACK ipln: trade-in and certified pre-owned gear

  5. Launch of IPLN Academy

  6. Opening of IPLN Paris, in the 10th arrondissement

  7. IPLN Awards: 108 products, 12 categories, over 6,000 votes

  8. Launch film for IPLN Expériences

  1. First Black Friday with creators for Images Photo Lyon

  2. Lockdown: click-and-collect, remote sales and manufacturer promotions with creators

  3. Launch of ipln.fr: Images Photo Lyon Numérique becomes IPLN

  4. BACK ipln: trade-in and certified pre-owned gear

  5. Launch of IPLN Academy

  6. Opening of IPLN Paris, in the 10th arrondissement

  7. IPLN Awards: 108 products, 12 categories, over 6,000 votes

  8. Launch film for IPLN Expériences