Samsung needed to launch their new Galaxy S22 into the Australian market. But as smartphones continue to evolve, the changes through each upgrade cycle become increasingly marginal.

Year to year, there’s not much that changes. With the S22 however, Samsung was bringing to market hero features to drive conversion and sales. Dubbed ‘Nightography’, this next level night mode camera promised to capture beautiful shots even in the lowest light.

But we knew that people don’t care about new specifications, they only care about how the new feature will make a meaningful difference in their lives

Our objective was to drive trial of the Galaxy S22, turn an incremental smartphone feature into something entirely new and desirable for our target audience.

The ‘Walk The Night’ idea was activated beyond the runway with an immersive brand experience our target audience could walk through. Put simply, we took all the elements of a fashion show and delivered them as a walk through experience in the dark. Here, the S22 and the ‘nightographhy’ feature would act as your eyes, capturing the drama and spectacle of the runway as only possible with the device. It disguised a product trial as a fashion show which popped up for the length of the fashion festival, getting the phone in hands and trialing the Nightography feature all while in the context of their passion point.

Our fashion obsessed and confident Gen Z / Millennial female audience had tuned us out in favour of Apple devices, seeing Samsung phones as being too sterile and ‘techy’.

Rather than use traditional communications to deliver functional messages, we created a unique experience that spoke to this audience’s passion points and social feeds.

Partnering with Melbourne Fashion Festival (MFF) to organise the National Graduate Showcase to take place on a runway in the pitch-black, we created a fashion show that could only be seen using the ‘Nightography’ feature. In putting the feature to the test in this stylish world, we gave our audience a unique experience of the brand and product benefits.

However, we knew that the promise of technology only becomes real when we experience and feel it for ourselves. So we created a brand activation inviting people into the fashion show to try the phone for themselves.

The ‘in the dark’ fashion experiences comprise a massive structure of 11 shipping container frames, dominating Fed Square and drawing people in with its neon graffiti presence.

Upon entry, guests were given a Galaxy S22 phone to play with Nightography and capture their experience. Inside, guests navigated through a series of progressively darker rooms. Starting with a tall, mirrored infinity room, a rain room followed with water curtains cascading in front of screens. Next guests played in the paparazzi booth, before entering the catwalk room with live models dressed in outfits from the ‘Walk the Night’ fashion show. Visitors finished their journey in an after-party room complete with a photo media wall and live DJ.

When exiting, our Samsung brand ambassadors emailed guests the photos and videos shot on their S22, to share all over social media extending the reach of the activation.

It’s safe to say the Samsung Galaxy S22 stole the show. The on-ground brand activation saw more than 2,700 people interact with our new devices in the week we were live, 74% of whom were non-Samsung users. Samsung achieved a sponsorship recall of 6 x more than other sponsors, due largely to the fact that our activity was recalled by our target of 18–29-year-olds at 33% above benchmark.

Not bad considering this audience had previously ignored our product launch comms. Of the people who engaged with our activity, 79% are considering a Samsung Galaxy S22 for their next phone purchase.