The Campaign

Our smartphones’ CPUs are powerful. What if we could donate bits of this processing power to research labs, when we don’t use it? Various platforms of grid computing already exist – but heavily ‘techie’ and difficult for general users to participate. That’s why the Power Sleep app was developed to look just like an alarm clock. By simply setting the alarm, users agree to donate small packets of CPU power to research labs every night. The app donates only when WiFi is connected and during charging – meaning no extra costs for the user. With the form of an alarm clock, the app was developed to be easier to understand and use than any other grid computing platform. Moreover, setting an alarm was an integral part of many people’s daily sleeping rituals -making habitual repeat participation possible, unlike any other donation platform. Integrated campaign around the app was executed in Austria, with headlines “Do good, while you sleep.” OOH posters portraying a sleeping couple and TVC that aired specifically at night-time sparked intrigue about the app. More rational, detailed information was provided through PR, where it was critical to communicate the ease of donation while rebuking general concerns about the technology. PR combined with social media helped amplify the communication to a global level – enabling more than 180,000 app downloads with over 21,492,233 impressions and 1,196,547 Facebook reach in 5 weeks, helping people from all over the world donate unused processing power for the good – while they’re sleeping.

The Brief

Various challenges for grid computing – namely, data security and excessive data/power usage, were identified through initial consumer research. The app was developed to donate only with WiFi connection and during charging, meaning no additional costs for the user. It also accessed only the processing power of participating smartphones and no private data, which was confirmed and endorsed by scientists at the University of Vienna. Active and strategic PR played a critical role to help build trust and rebuke general concerns, while at the same time making the concept easily understandable by a wider global audience to maximize momentum.

Results

The app has been downloaded over 201,767 times to date. Only 68,297 of these downloads come from Austria where campaign ran, other downloads come from all over the world incl. USA, Brazil, Poland, Russia thanks to an overarching PR strategy. The campaign generated over 21,492,233 impressions including over 700,966 Youtube views and 1,196,547 reach on Facebook. With 58% awareness and 71% Top2 Preference in Austria, the campaign was covered in more than 650 media around the world - generating $4,526,492 net worth media value. Brand image post campaign saw biggest increase on social responsibility attributes – traditionally weakest for Samsung. It has generated the most active and positive conversations on social media around the brand in Samsung Austria’s history. Most important, every morning, Samsung Power Sleep users from all over the world are starting the day feeling good, knowing they’ve contributed to a greater good - simply by sleeping.

Execution

The app launched in Austria on February 14th, 2014, with an official press conference in partnership with leading professor of the SIMAP project from the University of Vienna. Within 3 days all major daily publications in Austria had covered Power Sleep. The agency also ran a parallel, global PR push aiming for major IT publications like The Verge, which resulted in the campaign being covered in more than 650 media around the world. After the 3rd week of launch, based on the high amount of positive buzz on social media around the brand, Samsung decided to give additional global PR support through its social media channels worldwide, in time to celebrate World Sleep Day. Tech-focused global PR helped maximize initial app downloads, which resulted in ‘stickiness effect’ of top-ranking apps to continue performing well over a longer period of time.

The Situation

Power Sleep is an innovative social donation platform that launched as part of Samsung’s global brand & CSR campaign under its ideal, “Technology only begins to have meaning, when put in the hands of human beings.” Open brief was given to communicate this to the world. Power Sleep is an alarm clock app that lets smartphone users donate unused processing power – based on the ‘grid computing’ concept. Existing grid computing platforms tended to be too ‘techie’, scaring away mass general users – thus biggest goal for Power Sleep was to make this amazing technology be actively used by a wider crowd.

The Strategy

The core insight was that vast majority of people have a high willingness to do good, so if we focused on the ease of a donation platform while taking away major concerns, the number of people participating in grid computing platforms could increase exponentially. We developed a two-tier approach, which dealt with both emotional intrigue and rational proof. With the headline “Do good, while you sleep”, ads on traditional media like OOH and TVC increased emotional intrigue about the campaign in Austria. However the rational part was more important, namely multi-phase PR that kicked off app launch with official press conference inviting academic partners and tech opinion leaders in Austria. Global PR was also utilized to target major IT publications, to generate active organic buzz around the campaign on social media by as many tech enthusiasts as possible, to fuel initial app download growth.