Company: Samsung Electronics Canada
Contact: David Mear, Media Supervisor, Cheil Canada
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Industry: Consumer Electronics
Annual revenue: $2,147,500,000
Number of employees: 1700

Quick Read

Getting in the game early and trying something new has its risks—and its advantages.

When Samsung Electronics America introduced a new mobile device in direct competition with the iPhone, the company knew it had to do something novel to generate brand awareness and product consideration.

But tight budgets meant it couldn't just go all out; it had to take a strategic approach. Digital out-of-home media, although unproven, stood out as a new, low-cost channel with potential.

Samsung made digital out-of-home the primary vehicle for the new launch campaign. And by doing so, it achieved stellar brand-awareness levels and purchase-consideration ratings.

Challenge

Samsung Electronics, the flagship company of South Korea-based Samsung Group, is a leading global electronics company that specializes in TVs, DVDs, MP3 players, video cameras, mobile phones, and more.

In August 2008, the company introduced a new touch-screen smartphone called Instinct in the Canadian market, in direct competition with Apple's iPhone. David Mear, media supervisor at agency Cheil Canada, led the effort for Samsung Electronics America to promote the product launch and earn market share.

Objectives for the marketing campaign included the following:

  • Targeting key geographic areas within the Canadian market to increase audience frequency
  • Increasing brand and product awareness by using breakthrough creative and messaging media
  • Demonstrating the features and user experience (e.g., touch screen) of the new handset
  • Taking a cost-effective approach

"We also wanted to find a new way to get our messaging out there," recalled Mear.

Campaign

Samsung tried digital out-of-home media: short ad spots interspersed with video content that is played on a closed loop on a network of LCD screens placed in venues such as restaurants, bars, convenience and grocery stores, doctors' offices, transit stations, and taxi cabs.

"We chose digital out-of-home for this campaign because it was cost-effective and allowed us to have far larger reach and impact in terms of reaching out to consumers on a one-to-one basis," said Mear. "We also had certain aspects we wanted to promote—in this case, touch—and digital out-of-home allowed us to showcase those capabilities through motion."

The campaign, which launched late in Summer 2008, was aimed at 25-34-yearolds, with a skew toward the male demographic, in the Canadian urban centers of Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, and Ottawa.

The 15-second ad spot created for this campaign featured an eye-catching, computer-generated mechanical hand composed of various Samsung cell phones, which opened to reveal the new Instinct unit. The spot went on to quickly model the Instinct's frame and highlight its music, video and Web-accessing touch-screen features, before concluding with a branded tagline that read "The new touch smartphone—Get your hands on one."

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Case Study: How a New, Low-Cost Offline Channel Generated Surprisingly Stellar Results for Samsung

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kimberly Smith is a freelance writer. Reach her via dtkgsmith@gmail.com.

LinkedIn: Kim Smith