Samsung announced its new Galaxy Z Flip3 5G and Z Fold3 5G foldable smartphones on August 6, 2021. We pitched live video commerce to Samsung that same week to support these innovative new phones as early as mid-September.

Live video commerce events have popped up sporadically in the past few years as brands and retailers look to innovate in the space. The problem is, the majority of these are one-off livestreams heavily marketed with influencers to drive a bump in sales. We thought there was a better way — to not just generate a bump, but to create a consistent connection to consumers and drive purchases.

The objective was to increase intent and purchases from warm audiences within the consideration phase. We wanted to redefine the Samsung Mobile purchase experience by creating a weekly shoppable livestream meeting consumers that are ready to purchase where they already are — on Samsung.com.

We won the project the second week of August with one very big caveat — to launch the same day the Z Flip3 and Z Fold3 launched on August 27. So we got to work. And fast. We hired an experienced showrunner to start scriptwriting, a producer to find talent and a studio to shoot in, and put a creative and account team in place to build the entire show from the ground up in 17 days. And this live commerce project needed a name, so we gave it one: Samsung Live.

By featuring frequent, smaller sales every week, this recurring livestream would effectively bring viewers into the purchase cycle, increase overall awareness, build brand affinity and offer product education opportunities, making Samsung top of mind for larger, future purchases.

Ultimately, we wanted to create the most convenient, informative and rewarding experience for purchasing Samsung products via shoppable livestream.

SELLING SAMSUNG IS THE SHOW. The Samsung Mobile ecosystem needs to be integrated into every aspect of this live commerce experience because selling Samsung is quite literally the whole show. Each episode needs flagship devices, product education, and relevant storytelling for why each smartphone, pair of earbuds or smartwatch matters to consumers.

ONE LIVE SHOW, ONCE A WEEK. Getting viewers into a purchase cycle with smaller, more frequent sales every week paves the way for this phone launch. Conversion is what live commerce is all about.

TRULY INVEST IN TALENT. Authentic two-way communication via live chat happens when hosts and guests are able to let their personalities shine through to tell the brand story. Entertainment adds reach.

LET DATA LEAD. Discoveries made during our pilot and future episodes were critical in informing future show topics and products. Trust the findings on how to convert interested shoppers into satisfied, repeat buyers.

When August 27 rolled around, we were live on Samsung.com with two very energetic hosts and a script full of engaging content and offers. We aired our first show to much praise from Samsung. But this wasn’t a one-off event — we had more shows coming up to plan for.

With our frequency plan of airing a live show on Samsung.com for 60 minutes once per week, we had to figure out how to keep viewers watching a one-hour commerce-driven show. We started to weave audience passions into Samsung Live, such as gaming, music, art and beyond, as well as bring on relevant guests to cover a wide range of viewer interests.

From August to December, no two episodes were the same because we had new guests, new scripts and new engaging segments to keep viewers watching — and most importantly — buying.

We set out to increase intent and purchases from consumers already on Samsung.com in the consideration and research phase of the purchase journey. Our weekly livestreams effectively hit and surpassed KPI targets — including exceeding our target cumulative conversion rate by 201% — that we set for Samsung Live in the beginning. So much so that we had to keep changing what those targets were.

The pilot Samsung Live episode aired on August 27, 2021 when the Z Flip3 5G and Z Fold3 5G launched. Between August 27 and December 31, we went live 24 times on Samsung.com streaming more than 22.5 hours in total.

Ultimately, we tried to create a convenient, informative and rewarding way to purchase products via shoppable livestream on Samsung.com. And Samsung decided the show must go on in 2022, with one big and exciting caveat — to air two live shows a week.