Shortlisted 2019

BRAND AND MEDIA OWNER PARTNERSHIP

Brand

Samsung Galaxy Note9

Entered by:

Starcom

Credits:

Buzzfeed, The Dodo, R/GA

Selling a phone with hidden powers

The Challenge

In 2018 Samsung planned the release of their next generation flagship device, the Galaxy S9. However, the
smartphone marketplace had hit a wall with numerous media outlets reporting that the industry had reached its
peak, struggling to excite Millennial audiences with annual smart phone launches.

  • The average upgrade cycle had grown from 24 to 29 months
  • Smartphone search queries were down 25% YoY 2017 to 2018

Interest in S9 was tracking 22% lower vs. S8 at time of launch

This heightened the competition between manufacturers for the retention of current customers and acquisition of
competitive customers. The marketplace was overflowing with competitor brands claiming messages of camera
superiority – a top reason for purchase – leading consumers to an overall take-out of phone fatigue.
It was imperative for Samsung to showcase a unique feature which led to a focus on something no other advertiser
at the time was highlighting: Super Slow-mo.

The Strategy

Samsung needed to get a deeper understanding of how to engage Millennial audiences with the unique Super Slow-
mo camera feature to trigger an upgrade or a switch to Samsung.

We found the following:
From an experience standpoint Millennials have a desire to feel connected to something bigger than just the product
itself:

  • They over-index for buying a product/service for the experience of being part of the community built around it
  • They over-index in wanting their favorite brands to connect them with other fans of the brand

From a channel standpoint Millennials exhibit high volumes of social media consumption, and it is a key medium for them to connect with brands:

  • Millennials have an average of 9 social media accounts
  • Social media is rated as the top outlet for Millennials to consume content at 2 hours and 34 minutes per day
  • A core social motivation for Millennials is to share photos or videos with others
  • Throughout the purchase journey, Millennials over-index for interacting with brands through content,
    particularly entertainment content and often via third parties

From a content standpoint Samsung needed to develop content that would not only highlight the Super Slow-mo capabilities, but translate them into benefits, i.e. the ability to capture and share real life moments and passions in a completely new way. Regarding tone of voice it had to be authentic and trustworthy, not like a pitch to sell the latest smartphone.

With all this in mind we focused our attention to partnering with online publishers who were true digital natives,
addressing Millennials at scale and whose passion specific content was well received across social media
environments.

We selected BuzzFeed and The Dodo as our holistic content creation and distribution partners. Both specialize in developing snackable videos, which result in high user engagement and often-viral outcomes. Regarding passion point pillars, we chose those that offered the perfect triangle of a) relevant to Millennials, b) native to each partner’s platform and c) ideal to showcase our unique camera feature.

BuzzFeed:
Millennial audience coverage: 60%
Food & Travel as top interest: 56%
Super Slow-mo ideal for close ups of favourite guilty pleasures & holiday activities

The Dodo:
Millennial audience coverage: 63%
Animal & Pet Lovers: 79%
Super Slow-mo ideal to showcase people’s furry friends in action

The Implementation

The core theme of our co-branded content campaign was to“ Make Every Day Epic” with aesthetically engaging
footage of everyday situations produced by BuzzFeed and The Dodo.

The 1st and 2nd Phases featured Hero Videos, briefly highlighting all the S9 camera features while focusing on the
unique, seasonal content that was captured in Super Slow-mo on the S9, such as:

Epic Moments on Buzzfeed (Food & Travel)

  • A young woman attempting to capture an array of gummy sweets in her mouth
  • A young man attempting to capture a bowl of popcorn in his mouth
  • Ice cream being scooped, pouring chocolate sauce on it, and topping it off with whipped cream
  • A young man doing a cannonball as he splashed into a pool
  • A young man getting hit in the face with a water balloon
  • A young man juggling fruit in the sun

Epic Moments on The Dodo (Pets)

  • A dog splashing into a pool
  • Dogs playing fetch in a sprinkler on a hot sunny day
  • A cat that loves to go out in the wild and take selfies
  • Dog owner and her dog being filmed dressing alike for Mother’s Day
  • A dog being thrown a box of doughnuts and eating one

The 3rd Phase that followed were How To Videos that allowed publishers to go into more detail on how the S9 can
help owners to capture amazing videos such as:

  • Instagram Tips video from Instagram Star “Zammy the Dog” showcasing step by step directions while Zammy
    gets hosed down and plays with a baby in a sea of bubbles

We had a strong device targeting strategy that allowed us to re-engage with users whether they were on a Samsung, Apple or Other Android device. We sequentially targeted users from the 1st touch of the Hero Videos down to the 3rd Phase of How to Videos that encouraged to explore more content on Samsung.com.

From a cross-market perspective, we delivered 38 pieces of content to 10 countries, translated into 7 languages.
Local markets amplified our global content and produced additional local assets to reflect what epic everyday
experiences looked like in their respective culture.

Examples of Australian videos celebrating the local way of life:

  • Sprinkles being thrown on sliced bread
  • A seagull stealing food from someone on the beach
  • A young woman coming out the water, whipping her hair out like a mermaid
  • Eggs being broken Australian style for “Brekkie”

The Result

The audience engagement results of the campaign were epic:

  • 93% of the Millennial audience engaged with our content
  • 91% owned a competitor brand

We ran brand studies with both partners to demonstrate the efficiency of the partnership on business objectives:

  • 199% uplift in brand awareness
  • 212% uplift in Super Slow-mo awareness
  • 48% uplift in ad recall
  • 21% uplift in purchase intent

We delivered above benchmark media results for engagement rate:

  • Buzzfeed +990%
  • The Dodo +138%

We drove meaningful traffic to Samsung.com:

  • 91% of direct visits from the Samsung Explore Page derived from the partner campaigns
  • 3.8% CTR to Buy Now more than doubling site average (1.5%)

All in all, we were able to attract the attention of tech-fatigued Millennials and transform the smartphone launch into
an engaging experience and rich dialogue with our audience. Users started to share their own epic stories related to
our posted content, tagging their friends and expressing how they couldn’t wait to try the fun Super Slow-mo feature
of the new S9.