Nowadays we can do anything with our smartphone’s camera. Except shooting a video at night with good quality, a rule that the new Galaxy S22 promised to break with its Nightography technology.

Our challenge was to put the new Samsung in the hands of a non-professional Portuguese audience and create a content that could engage with the public and make the news.

Our objectives were to support the S22 local launch through a PR strategy that guaranteed a maximum earned media coverage and social media engagement with the Gen Z and millennials. At the same time, the idea should reinforce innovation positioning for Samsung as a brand.

Airing 4 months after the official Galaxy S22 Unpacked, the idea should sustain the interest of the media and the public for the product innovations, while producing User Generated Content to use as a product demo for Nightography.

To get the Portuguese to shoot at night like never before, we brought back to life one of Portugal's pop icons and invited the public to shoot the performance with the Galaxy S22.

António Variações gave his first concert in 1981 and changed Portuguese nightlife forever. His music broke all the rules and, despite his sudden death in 1983, Variações remained as one of Portugal’s most beloved icons. 41 years later, Samsung brought him back to the stage as a hologram.

We created a deepfake powered by AI using more than 17k photos and videos. We announced the concert and in less than 2 weeks the tickets were sold out. More than 100 media publications covered the return of Variações. On July 5th, the fans lined up to see Variações and 8 of them shot the performance using the new Galaxy S22. The result was then watched online by millions.

People are more and more indifferent to smartphone launches. To demonstrate a revolutionary smartphone that breaks the rules of light we needed a revolutionary idea, something Portugal had never seen before.

Galaxy S22 made us see the night like never before. So we searched for a Portuguese night icon, someone that could resonate with all generations, specially with Gen Z and millennials. And we found António Variações. 38 years after his early death, we bought him back to life as a hologram and created a performance that caught the attention of the public and the media: pop culture, music, lifestyle, technology and entertainment media covered Variações comeback as a hologram generating more than 100 earned news.

The show was announced and the tickets sold out in two weeks.

From the open call to shoot the performance with a Galaxy S22, we selected 8 amateurs to create 4 digital nightography videos.

“Nightography Live” with António Variações as a hologram was announced one month before the concert and the news spread quickly. With just a teaser web film and a press release, articles and publications popped up everywhere — from radio stations to newspapers and magazines.

Then we started a social media campaign to sell tickets, which sold out in less than 2 weeks, and we invited the biggest Portuguese TV channels to come to the show. On July 5th, and on the following days, Variações made the news once again.

The concert was shot in low light with the Galaxy S22 by 8 people selected from an open call and, with their footage, we created a live music video which we then promoted as a product demo.

The campaign made the news since the concert announcement on June till September, generating +100 articles and publications and reaching +4 million people.

Compared to previous flagships launches in Portugal, Nightography Live” with António Variações as a hologram not only broke the rules of light, it also broke all the metrics from Samsung content campaigns.

In social media, the campaign generated +17 million impressions, reached +2.8 million users, and got +1 million interactions — an increase in brand engagement rate of 46%. We also had +2.5 million views across Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube — +152% versus last year’s flagship campaign.

In earned media, we reached +4 million people with +100 publications about António Variações’ comeback and the new Galaxy S22, some of them on prime-time TV news. The return on investment was +€450,000.00 — which led to a 274% growth on AVE compared to the previous year initiative.

The tickets for the concert sold out in less than 2 weeks — something that only arena rock bands can do in Portugal.

According to IPSOS analysis of the campaign impact on the brand, it stood out very positively, both in Samsung "proud to own" and "brand image" (specially in the following atributes: style, young, cool, fashion, premium, distinctive, special, good quality performance and social dimension) among Gen Z and millenials. Brand linkage of the campaign was excellent, with 93% of the inquiries associating it with Samsung.