In 2016, Samsung partnered with Rihanna to change the way an album is released, letting fans experience the Rihanna’s life story, from the inside.

The story of Rihanna’s 2016 album, ANTI, unfolded on social through eight chapters.

The campaign unfolded through eight chapters. In the first chapter, fans met a mysterious character named @IAmTheKeyholder. She shared clues with them on Twitter, Instagram, and beyond. Many followers even believed she was a real person.

@IAmTheKeyholder sent them clues in mysterious boxes and on Samsung devices, and even keys that unlocked tickets to Rihanna’s 2016 tour.

This made the community of Rihanna fans become Samsung fans.

Implementation:

We created an off-site “social studio” just for this campaign. It was filled with Community Managers, Illustrators, Prop Handlers, Creatives, and many more. Each person was key to bringing @IAmTheKeyholder to life, along with all of the activations in her domain.

Timeline:

10 weeks

Placement:

Our campaign lived in both the digital and physical world. @IAmTheKeyholder came alive on Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud, and Facebook. From simple yet beautiful GIFs we posted on social to the cryptic, physical boxes we mailed out, we delivered on our goal to create a huge social conversation.

Scale:

Through our 1:1interactions, our use of “surprise and delights,” and clues on Twitter that all lead to events in the real world, we were able to successfully deliver scale.

Reach:

• 3.2 billion user impressions

• 354 million PR impressions

Engagement:

• 2.5 million unique visitors to the hub

• 9.5 million social engagements

Sales:

This partnership and campaign wasn’t brokered to create sales. It was to create affinity for the Samsung Galaxy brand.

Achievement against business targets:

• Achieved earned media attention through celebrity partnership

• Gave the brand’s social a huge refresh

• We turned a brand sentiment plateau into a large and continuing spike of owner love, and the winning of a vast new audience

• Used social in a unique way that many brands could not