Situation:

Samsung was launching the new Galaxy S10 smartphone. Boasting a full kit of lenses in your pocket, users could shoot like a pro without being one. Other built-in features included Instagram Mode and Powershare.

Brief + Objectives:

1. Create and execute a world-class activation for Vivid Sydney Festival that complements the Galaxy Studio and completely transforms the space.

2. Drive active consideration and evaluation of Samsung Galaxy through activation and execution of Galaxy Studio (a deep product immersion zone).

3. Make the experience impactful, simple, shareable, PR Worthy, on-brand and ensure it fosters mass product interaction to drive brand affinity through the benefit of our devices.

4. Drive mass product interaction for the Galaxy S10 through an emotional and social connection as well as a benefit led experiences, measured through meaningful engagements captured onsite.

Scale: Over 3,000sqm (over 4 basketball courts)

Timing: 3 months - concept to execution

Samsung tasked the agency to promote the new Galaxy S10 smartphone to Australians and drive active consideration amongst those who normally wouldn’t consider Samsung, showcasing its features like “Super Low-Light.

Samsung has created a consistent and very powerful brand philosophy, “Do What You Can’t”, which is based on the ideals of never being complacent, defying barriers, and ultimately achieving the impossible. We, as an agency, wanted to ensure this messaging was apparent throughout our creative idea.

The idea was to incorporate various levels of S10 inspired playful engagements, at Vivid Sydney - the largest festival of lights in the world. We ideated on having S10 devices throughout the installation, the inclusion of mobile apps for visitors to ‘play with’ and share photos, and lastly, we wanted to have a space where users could be handed an S10, and fully interact with the device.

Our target audience was Millennials, for several reasons. Mainly, Millennials represent nearly 40% of Australia’s working population and are rapidly becoming a major consumer group and valued customer segment. Secondly, Millennials are power smartphone users who highly value experiences, plus 55% of Vivid attendees are Millennials.

Our research showed smartphone consumers like to “play” with devices before purchasing. Therefore, we had to do more than tell the target audience about the new enhancements. We needed them to experience first-hand, especially non-Samsung users who are difficult to engage with the brand.

It was focusing on “playing” with devices, that we built our strategy around organic experiences to drive active consideration which was carefully crafted into three tiered customer journeys of different levels of engagement, known as “Waders”, “Swimmers” and “Divers”. All journeys were strategically related to S10 features to connect with our target audience, capture their imagination, and encourage social sharing.

The installation was enormous, transforming over 3,000sqm (4+ basketball courts) in three months from conception to execution.

Visitors could explore Galaxy S10-inspired attractions in a bespoke tech-enabled playground and immersive studio, which was the most Instagrammable 2019 Vivid experience.

Electric Playground, a multitude of experiences where festival-goers could unleash their inner child through the Galaxy S10 lens. This included:

-A field of 320+ dynamic pillars of light used to charge phones and changed the pillars colours

-6.5-metre illuminated LED Slide with exit photographed by S10

-Skywalk with Sydney Harbour view

-LED reactive hopscotch dance floor and neon hula-hoops

-40 second light and sound show spectacle every 20 minutes

Galaxy Studio, an immersive space that boasted:

-Tailored light experiences inspired by visitors’ irises and heartbeats

-A S10 with a pre-loaded app was given to visitors to capture their experience

-A storyteller’s workshop and interactive art piece from a local female artist

The core objective was to engage with an audience who wouldn’t normally engage with Samsung, which we successfully achieved. The activation knocked the targets out of the park and was pure neon eye candy for our audience and social media.

Overall, the Samsung Electric Playground had:

• 289,095 product interactions (44%?target. 344%? vs. 2018 Vivid activation)

• 281,411 visitors (87%?than target. 116%? vs. 2018 Vivid activation)

• 54,319 product engagement

• Hashtags: 4.76K

• Media Coverage: 667 pieces

• #1 Instagrammed branded installation at Vivid

The three different components of the experience (The Playground, The Studio, and The Apps), worked to shift attitudinal changes about Samsung to a highly unreachable audience.

We created memorable and sharable experiences that were delivered to our target audience in person and later through their inboxes; helping to drive active consideration and change their perceptions from rational and functional benefits, to emotional and social ones.