The Campaign

When Samsung launched their GALAXY Gear (the Gear), a smart watch linked with your mobile, they hoped it would be the next big thing. Unfortunately the initial PR was mixed. We had some work to do. The objectives were to make it exciting, demonstrate its uses, and get great coverage. The strategy? Throw out the rulebook for tech PR. Rather than talk tech, we focused on the big picture: The Galaxy Gear lets you stay connected - without letting go of whatever you’re doing. To help us show New Zealanders, we called a guy who actually can’t let go. Infamous French climber – Alain Robert has climbed over a hundred buildings - without ropes, and without permission. This time, we asked him to arrange permission to climb a building - as he climbed it - using only the Galaxy Gear. The stunt not only stopped traffic but secured coverage on New Zealand’s highest rating TV news bulletin, current affairs show (twice), the front of our largest newspaper, and on our most popular breakfast radio show. Overall it secured almost blanket coverage across New Zealand’s news media with the product being positively profiled and outstanding branding achieved in nearly every piece. On-board cameras also captured close up content to share via social media - generating over a million impressions and new fans for Samsung and the Gear. The campaign got GALAXY Gear out of the ‘tech pages’ and on the ‘front pages’.

The Brief

Our goal was to create mass awareness of the Gear through trusted editorial channels and to cut through Christmas advertising clutter without an ATL media spend. Our key KPI was to get the Gear on TV and into the main news sections of the key national publications. Our audience was 25yr+ multimedia users. Research consisted of a detailed review of national and international coverage for the Gear to gauge sentiment and gain insights into how best to position it with the media. Pre-pitching to the media refined the approach.

Results

Samsung’s “Don’t Let Go” PR campaign captured the imagination of the New Zealand media and public - generating significant audience reach and positive messaging for the GALAXY Gear; • 40 pieces of mainstream media coverage with Samsung branding (91%) and 34 with significant GALAXY Gear branding or messages (77%) were secured, • Total mainstream media impressions were 4,523,194 – more than the population of New Zealand, • The ROI of the earned media was 463%, • 865,584 people reached on Facebook (including 108,552 video plays), • The six Youtube videos were viewed 195,668 times, • Facebook followers jumped by 15% in three days, The overall tone of coverage was overwhelmingly complimentary with100% of coverage rated positive (97%) or neutral (3%) – a real contrast to earlier coverage in niche tech titles and blogs. This in turn drove a month on month increase in sales of 203%.

Execution

Our first step was to get Alain to agree to use the Gear to arrange permission whilst climbing a building without ropes. Then we get him a special entry visa (he’d been arrested for climbing buildings illegally), identify a suitable building, undertake safety and camera rigging analysis, and climb plan the climb. All within five days of Alain’s arrival in the country. The day before the climb Alain did exclusive media appearances to talk about the climb and the Gear - without revealing the location. On the day the location was revealed and key media were hosted to watch the climb. During the climb Alain used the Gear to make calls, send texts, and share photos. His progress was shared live on Facebook. Post climb interviews were undertaken and film of the climb distributed to the media and posted to Facebook and Youtube

The Situation

The brief was to position the Samsung Note 3 as the most stylish smartphone in New Zealand, and the GALAXY Gear as the ‘must have mobile’ companion - a combination that current Samsung and Android users couldn’t wait to upgrade too and one that iPhone users want to switch for. The Gear had already launched in New Zealand but positive coverage, cut through, and engagement had been low. A big idea was required in order to generate positive coverage in the cluttered technology market and demonstrate the point of difference of the Gear.

The Strategy

Tech media and early adopters tend to have big (and often unrealistic) expectations for new technology launches – it should always do more and be cheaper. Our research showed us that this was the case for the Gear; early media reviews were mixed and the focus was often on what it couldn’t do vs. what it could. So we took a different tack. Rather than spending time discussing features our strategy was to focus on the major benefits of the Gear for everyday mobile users; 1. You don’t have to get your phone out of your pocket to do the things you do most often, 2. It’s new and it’s the smartest watch out there. This allowed us to talk to the mainstream, not just the tech, media. After all, this is cutting edge wearable tech not a pared back smartphone.