The Campaign

The scale and ambition of this campaign were a first for Hong Kong (HK). Solve for Tomorrow (S4T) was the first movement of its kind to use consumer technology to drive environmental change. Research indicated that people see the need to address environmental issues, but don’t think individuals can make a difference. Over 75% of HK adults think people below 29 have the bright ideas to solve HK’s environmental issues. Therefore, Samsung set out to not just incentivise, but to inspire and enable young people to do just that. The objective was daunting: • generating awareness is easy, but action is not • conversations about the environment are at a saturation point • a true movement to create change requires all audiences to be galvanised • Samsung wanted to have genuine role in enabling change, and not just do cause marketing. We created a competition in which Samsung’s technology, people, and knowledge were enablers for action. S4T was a 3-round competition for primary, secondary and tertiary students in HK. It sought video, audio and visual ideas for how to use technology to make the city a greener, smarter place. S4T was a unique multi-stakeholder campaign aimed to inspire and educate, but more importantly, it provided the means for people to make a difference. It activated: employees, government, NGOs (environment, education, and innovation), and the general public. • 25M impressions • 95% schools engaged • 1500+entries • 90,000 public vote • Digital ad reach:17.9M • 182pieces of media coverage

The Brief

Research showed 46% of people think that “environmental issues are too big for ‘me’ to make a difference”. Samsung set out to destroy that excuse. We aimed to galvanize all audiences to address environmental issues, activating influencers including government, NGOs, teachers, and the public. Goals: - Engage multiple audiences to support the campaign - Generate mass awareness - Reach and educate HK’s youth - Inspire genuine action This was to be the largest environmental competition for HK students. But this was to be more than a competition. The objective was to start a social movement.

Results

A social movement was started with S4T seen over 25M times (25M impressions). Inspired: • Engaged over 95% of schools in HK • Digital advertising reached over 17.9M people • Facebook posts reached over 3.3M people • YouTube videos (inspiration, how to submit, celebrity call for action videos) were viewed over 76K times • Generated at least 182 pieces of media coverage, with an EAV of HKD 11.9M Connect: • 12% of Samsung staff volunteered to support S4T • S4T website generated over 110,004 unique visitors • Media coverage ranged from print to bloggers, to broadcast media, across technology, education, and entertainment media. • Activated the government, NGOs, businesses, media, employees, teachers, parents, youth, celebrity and the public to support S4T Enable: • Over 90,000 members of public voted for the best ideas • Received over 1,500 ideas from HK students • Over 250 HK schools actively participated

Execution

Planning/Launch (10/01/2013—11/26/2013) - Content (English+Cantonese): messaging, marketing and stakeholder engagement materials - Toolkit for schools - Advertising creative, copy, media buy - PR, social media plan - Partnership: government, NGOs, celebrity, judges, media, Meet-and-Greet event - Website - Videos - Launch event: augmented reality, 3-D video Round 1: 2-minute audio with image submission (11/26/2013—01/30/2014) - Engaged over 95% of HK’s 1100 schools directly - Reviewed 1500+ submissions, coordinated judges to select top-60 - Employee engagement competition - Stakeholder newsletters - Celebrity call-to-action videos Round 2: Public vote on 2-minute video submissions (01/31/2014—03/25/2014) - Top-15 entries, top-20 participating-school announcement - Employee-student mentorship program Closing (03/26/2014—04/31/2014) - Coordinated judges to select top-9 - Closing ceremony: Smart-Classroom + videos displays - Published booklet - Employee competition closing - HKD3.7M prizes: grand-draw, students, schools, employees (cash, phone, tab, tv, laptop, printer, camera, Smart-Classroom, certificates)

The Situation

Over the past 15 years, the Hong Kong (HK) population increased by 20%, but our electricity consumption rose by 80%. Landfills will be exhausted by 2018. Our environment is a pressing concern. Samsung, as a socially responsible company, is passionate about improving the communities in which it operates. It set out to make a genuine contribution to improving HK’s environment. Using its technology, resources and brand acumen, Samsung set out to create a movement to empower HK’s young people to make a difference.

The Strategy

To change not just public perception but actual behaviour, the campaign had to go beyond raising awareness and providing incentives. It had to cut through the noise with a creative platform that would capture the public’s imagination, and motivate all audiences. Strategy: inspire, connect and enable people to make a difference. - Inspire— the public through creative design, celebrity endorsement, through-the-line promotion, rich content, exciting technology, unique experiential displays and events. - Connect—bring together Samsung employees, government, NGOs (environment, education, and innovation), teachers, parents, youth and the general public to take action in supporting individual’s environmental efforts. - Enable— people by providing toolkits, training, mentoring, support from influencers, and a platform to maintain the movement. 3.7 million in practical prizes were also awards to students and their schools. The success came from weaving all these elements into a fluid, integrated campaign to ensure not just awareness, but action.