OOH was used to bring the “different” form of our phone to life in the most impactful way.

Disrupting the habitual behaviour of buying a new phone, a journey that is exacerbated by the way people consume media. Knowing Kiwis want to play with a phone before buying, we flipped the iPhone retail path-to-purchase, targeting iPhone users visiting Apple retailers.

Ringfencing a 300m radius around Apple retailers and to reduce wastage time targeted between the key shopping times to deploy programmatic proximity OOH.

Analyzing movement patters of iPhone users, triggered OOH when it was likely they were nearby.

With the launch of its flagship Z Flip5 phone on the horizon, Samsung New Zealand needed to break younger iPhone users out of apathy and mobile inertia.

The Apple vs Samsung rivalry has been raging for years. Multimillion dollar campaigns from both sides are launched every year to steal share and pump up the base. These are beautiful (and expensive) campaigns but due to their global nature they can sometimes lack bite and local relevance. Any edgy, cheeky or feisty communications is considered a risk because there’s more to lose and less to gain.

New Zealand (NZ) is a small Pacific Island country frequently left off world maps. But one of the nice things about big ideas is that they can come from anywhere. Without massive media budgets, marketers in NZ need to be brave to win attention.

Fortunately, Samsung New Zealand has always had a willingness to embrace a bit of (harmless) fun along the way. Acting as a proper challenger brand and calling out its main competitor as and when it can. As such it assigns a proportion of its budget to develop local creative that speaks to the nuances of young New Zealanders.

So, we created a wickedly cheeky campaign that used Apple’s famous marketing against it, flipping their perspective on phones by showing that what once made them “different” was now making them all the same.

Samsung sits in second behind one of the biggest companies in history: Apple.

Apple had long warned us against conformity. Since its seminal Superbowl ad “1984”, this was a brand that had been meticulously built on being “different”. The brand for the non-conformists, who swam against the tide, and went against the grain.

BUT SOMEWHERE ALONG THE LINE, THE CHAMPION OF “DIFFERENT” HAD BECOME THE SYMBOL OF THE STATUS QUO.

With the launch of the flagship Z Flip5 phone, Samsung NZ needed to break break younger iPhone users out of apathy and mobile inertia by creating a local campaign that need to:

Making Samsung cool: Change young people's perception of the brand

Drive repeat purchase: Get Samsung owners feeling proud to own Samsung

Sell phones: Drive Purchase intent & switching from Apple

MAKE SAMSUNG COOL: CHANGE YOUNG PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION OF THE BRAND.

Measured by improvements in key image statements. The perception of Samsung being “Superior and Successful” increased by +13.7%, and “Smart and ahead of others” by +10.1% amongst 18-29 year olds.

DRIVE REPEAT PURCHASE: GET SAMSUNG OWNERS FEELING PROUD TO OWN A SAMSUNG.

KPI: 54.9pp.

RESULT: 85.7pp.

The number of 18-29 y/o consumers who gave Samsung 10/10 for “Proud to Own” increased 4.3% YoY to 24.3%, while Apple decreased -9.4% YoY to 28.4%. Samsung’s “Proud to Own” CI scores amongst 18-29 y/o’s vs. Apple increased 32.8pp YoY, beating our target of 54.9 by 30.8pp, a whopping 85.7/100. “PTO” is the same across all markets, this can be directly attributed to the local campaign.

Overall the executions contributed to an 11.4% increase in premium market share. Overtaking Apple for the first time ever, since entering the New Zealand market in 2008.

Apple might be a global giant, but in NZ, Samsung adopts a fierce challenger mindset to win outsized attention and dethrone its largest competitor.

Kiwis love a laugh, the underdog and back those who challenge convention. However, a universal truth stood in our way - no matter your age, it’s a daunting prospect to change your phone brand. Even for the most anarchic Gen Z, there is comfort in familiarity.

This was Samsung’s chance to snatch the crown. First, by shining a light on a simple, yet potent, truth. Samsung was now the brand for those who “think different”. And with its latest Flip phone, Samsung now had the form to match the function.

It was time to go straight for the neck with the boldest claim we could make without getting sued, and that was through our "different." campaign.