SAMSUNG GLOBAL BLOGGER

TitleSAMSUNG GLOBAL BLOGGER
BrandSAMSUNG
Product / ServiceGALAXY S3
CategoryA04. Best Use or Integration of User-Generated Content
EntrantCHEIL WORLDWIDE Seoul, SOUTH KOREA
Entrant Company CHEIL WORLDWIDE Seoul, SOUTH KOREA
Contributing Company CHEIL WORLDWIDE Seoul, SOUTH KOREA
Contributing Company 2 PREVIEW NETWORKS Copenhagen, DENMARK
Production Company SNEEK, UNITED KINGDOM

Credits

Name Company Position
Jc Oliver Microsoft Head Of Brand Strategy
Hong Chu Cheil Manager Samsung
Melissa Li Samsung Manager Sports Marketing
Jackie Oh Samsung Director Sports Marketing
Kyonghee Han Samsung Head Of Sports Marketing

The Campaign

Branded Content has been part the marketing mix since FMCG’s funded the “Soap“ opera. New platforms require content and when editorial budgets are non-existent or an audience is yet to reach critical mass brands can play an important role in delivering quality content the consumer craves whilst fulfilling their objectives of pushing a brand feeling or message. Getting the balance right between the Branded and the Content part of the value equation is absolutely vital. The challenge in digital is that laissez faire regulation can be advantageous but beware creating low grade content dressed up as a commercial as the audience will stay away. Brands/ media producers have to imbue local nuances when creating content for multi-market. What plays in France will not in Brazil so finding a global editorial thread is key however events such as the Olympics provide an ideal backdrop for consistent global engagement. What digital has delivered chiefly through YouTube is the rise of the public as bona-fide creators of content. Communities on Machinima, Funny or Die & Base 79 are utilised by brands to create user generated branded content. We tapped into the rise of this trend to deliver content for Samsung around our concept.

Results

As part of Samsung’s sponsorship certain IOC programs had to be supported. Samsung’s program was encouraging young people to attend the Olympics and tell the world about the host city experience. The challenge was how to engage people around a stale program that few people were interested in, drive brand, product and their Olympic messaging to a global audience . A tough ask when they had no rights to any event. Our objective was to turn the program into an entertaining global project that people wanted to engage with over the Olympic period. We deployed a strategy of acquiring young people using the reality show judging format from X Factor - submit and be judged! We identified people across Microsoft platforms and the wider web who were pre disposed to creating content, loved sport and wanted to come to London, asking them to submit a 30-second film, making the case to be an Olympic blogger. A celebrity panel narrowed down the candidates who would fly to London, report on & attend the Olympics. Samsung kitted out bloggers with camera equipment and a Galaxy S3 phone to capture their experiences of the assignments set by MSN editorial. Their vlogs and blogs formed the backbone of MSN’s daily Olympics coverage distributed across 18 markets daily (inc 6 Asian markets) in local language & selected global sites to drive buzz and awareness of the bloggers content. The competition complete with interviews & content from UK icons David Beckham, Jamie Oliver created excitement, while the video bloggers created the ultimate in user-generated branded content, produced by fans for fans. From following the competition to watching & sharing videos shot on location in London, real fans, speaking many different languages, responded to the campaign with the enthusiasm deserving of an event like the Olympics.

World-famous Londoners David Beckham and Jamie Oliver enticed contestants to submit entries in a series of films promoting the contest. Their videos and banners promoted the campaign across Microsoft platforms, the web & national radio/press. The stars - and celebrity judges - used their personal Facebook and Twitter pages to encourage participation. Combined with an outreach strategy that targeted online influences across key blogs, Samsung Global Blogger (SGB) spread quickly. The SGB experience was seamlessly integrated into MSN’s editorial coverage using Olympic Games-inspired content. Video networks generated awareness via editorial placements on tastemaker sites with supporting PR in key markets

The reaction to the campaign was overwhelming smashing our target of 1000 entries with over 3,000 people entering the competition & their social networks driving 400,000 votes of support in the judging phase The bloggers over the 14 Olympic days created 100 pieces of original content writing over 500 blogs. The press were enamoured with support across sites such as Daily Mail in the UK ( 68 million daily users ) to numerous marketing journals from around the world generating buzz The main site delivered 7.5 million page views and over 4 million visitors, with a total of 3.4 million video views with users sharing content over 40,000 times. The SGB Facebook community is still alive and well with the bloggers using it as a place to keep in touch with one another and post content about their lives…with some reuniting in London one year on after their unique experience Samsung were ecstatic about taken a tired program and injecting it with life “ We are very pleased to have hosted the most engaging and interactive Samsung Global Blogger program at the first ever social Olympic games “ Kyonghee Han Head of Samsung Sport Marketing