In a year that's seen a great deal of innovation from Huawei, some of our competitors have rested on their laurels. We needed to find a way to reach those defaulting to old favorites. With the iPhone XS's battery actually going down in size from last year's X.

The new iPhone XS Max carries a 3,174 mAh battery while the Huawei Mate 20 Pro has a 4,200 mAh battery. And we also know via GMO research that "Battery life is the #1 feature when buying a smartphone.”

We wanted to elevate the level of awareness among non-Huawei users with a gesture that would resonate well with them, and at the same time, driving conversations on one of our product differentiators such as battery performance.

People were queuing outside the Apple Store in Singapore 24 hours ahead of the launch of the new iPhone - it was an opportunity for an ambush and if you are a Apple fan you'll know it, powerbanks were the perfect accessory to help them pass time while waiting.

We thought it would be a good idea to give them a boost of charm and charge. So we hijacked the queue and gave them free Huawei powerbanks to help them save through the night. Along with the powerbank came a card with the message:

Here’s a power bank. You’ll need it. Courtesy of Huawei.

With the iPhone XS's battery actually going down in size from last year's X, we thought we'd do the right thing, giving new iPhone owners a little Huawei tech to see them through.

And we also know via GMO research that "Battery life is the #1 feature when buying a smartphone.”

We decided to have a completely innovative and new way to generate PR using non-Huawei users, driving conversations on one of our key product differentiators such as battery performance and also drawing attention to our upcoming flagship Mate 20 launch.

The message was simple but powerful, even more for the battery-low Apple Fans:

Here’s a power bank. You’ll need it. Courtesy of Huawei.

During the evening of the 20th of September of 2018 we arrived at the Apple Store in Singapore where Hardcore Apple Fans were camping waiting for the launch of the new IPhone, and when the energy of the queue was starting to reach really low levels.

So together with the Huawei Marketing and PR Team, we gave 200 Huawei Powerbanks in 15 minutes to Apple fans who were in need of a recharge.

The gesture was deeply appreciated by the hardcore Apple fans in the queue. And the phenomenon was immediately picked up and made global news in 48 hours:

$0 Invested in Media

$14.1k Total investment

41 Countries Reached

5.26 Billion Media Impressions

341k Social Media Shares

11.9 Million Views

$395 Million USD in Earn Media

From hijacking the queue, we created a queue for the launch of the new Huawei Mate 20 selling in Singapore 4x more phones (38k) than during the same launch period of the previous year. And ultimately having a direct impact specifically in Singapore where Huawei market share increased by 775% from August 2017 to November 2018.