Shortlisted 2019
Corporate Influencer
Brand
Samsung
Entered by:
WP BrandStudio, The Washington Post
Credits:
Starcom, Ogilvy
The Challenge
Samsung recognizes that in this world of advanced mobile technology, businesses are either the disruptor or the
disrupted. Their 2018 campaign objective was to establish Samsung as the enabler of the what they call the “Next
Mobile Economy,” which empowers businesses to thrive while leveraging transformative tech. Samsung sought a
media partner to produce content that highlights the challenges facing today’s business leaders while illuminating
solutions.
The Strategy
Prior to developing the branded content, WP BrandStudio and the Washington Post’s research and audience insights
team conducted a target interest study with the goal of understanding business and IT decision makers’ thoughts on
the Next Mobile Economy and Samsung’s four pillars: Collaboration, Customization, Control and Security. The
proprietary results of this study ensured that the topics covered would be top of mind for the target audience.
From here, WP Brandstudio developed a 360-degree content strategy including two newsroom-style articles, four
multimedia narratives and a three-part podcast series called Disrupt or Be Disrupted. The content series tackled
collaboration, worker productivity and enablement, consumer technology and security, providing actionable advice
for success in today’s competitive mobile economy.
The Implementation
In order to execute the strategy developed for Samsung, WP BrandStudio assembled a dedicated team including
content strategists, project managers, performance analysts, social media specialists and designers. We also
leveraged Samsung’s subject matter experts like Jonathan Wong, director of product marketing at Samsung, as well
as third party experts from forward-looking organizations like Accenture Strategy, Bain Capital and the University of
Michigan Business School.
Bolstered by the Washington Post’s award-winning, best-in-class advertising solutions, the series of branded content
and podcast episodes were promoted in-stream alongside the Post’s editorial stories. The content was targeted to
targeted Post readers using our proprietary, Amazon-inspired recommendation engine called Clavis. The content has
also run in The Washington Post’s national app alongside newsroom content. These promotions reached Samsung’s
desired audience in key markets across the globe, including the US, UK, Germany and France. Content was also
promoted via WP BrandStudio’s social handles, targeting users interested in topics like business, the economy, IT,
mobile technology and Silicon Valley. Finally, images and excerpts from the content ran in two high-impact print
executions, reaching our influential audience of thought leaders and business decision makers in Washington, D.C.
Due to the duration and scale of the campaign, WP BrandStudio was able to monitor performance and make
optimizations throughout to ensure the content met or exceeded benchmarks across all key metrics.
The Result
Due to the data-driven content strategy (informed by the initial target interest study) and constant performance
monitoring and optimization, the content surpassed its benchmarks for page views and unique visitors. We were
able to drive substantial reach across the four international markets, demonstrating that the topics resonated with
Samsung’s target audience of business decision makers. Ad units consistently exceeded WP BrandStudio’s CTR
benchmarks, further demonstrating the suitability of the messaging and media strategy.
On social media, organic and paid promotions on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn successfully drove referrals to the
content. Influencers were particularly active sharing the podcast series with their followers, deepening the reach of
the content across social platforms and illustrating the interest in both the content topics and medium.
In addition to surpassing benchmarks for key metrics, we measured our success with a Custom Content Impact
Study, also administered in partnership with Washington Post’s research and audience insights team. This study
allowed us to understand awareness and attitudes towards Samsung and gauge reactions to the branded content.
The articles WP BrandStudio produced were generally seen as providing new information about Samsung and
increasing favorable opinion about Samsung business technology solutions, with a majority of respondents saying
they were likely to share or recommend the content to others.