SLIDELINER

TitleSLIDELINER
BrandSAMSUNG
Product / ServiceCURVED HDTV
CategoryA02. Creative Innovation (incl. business solutions in association with a brand or creative campaign)
EntrantTRAFFIK Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Entrant Company TRAFFIK Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Advertising Agency TRAFFIK Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Media Agency STARCOM MEDIAVEST GROUP Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production Company ANTONYM Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
James Neale Traffik Managing Director
David Mardon Traffik Creative Director
David Loughnan Traffik Digital Director
Adam Harriden Traffik Art Director
Dan Hickman Traffik Producer
Andrew Lovell Traffik Operations Director
Jason Ho Traffik Account Manager
Dan O Mara Traffik Head Of Design
Arno Lenior Samsung Chief Marketing Officer
Ian Bell Samsung Head of Marketing Communications
Tony Brown Samsung Group Marketing Manager – Consumer Electronics
Olga Tsompanidis Samsung Marketing Manager - Audio Visual
Trinette Seqeira Samsung Assistant Marcomms Manager – Brand Experience & Events
Dan Canham Samsung Marketing Manager – Corporate Brand
An Huynh Samsung Marketing Assistant AV
Cheryl Tang Samsung Marketing Communications Manager - Audio Visual
Annelise Rowe Samsung Corporate Partnerships Executive
Alex Dalby Traffik 3D Designer

The Brief

Background: In a less than forgiving landscape, with consumer confidence trending towards GFC levels and unemployment at decade-long highs, we were tasked with launching Samsung’s premium-priced Curved UHDTV Range. Our answer was Samsung SlideLiner, a world-first innovation. Samsung SlideLiner is a 4-person ‘couch’ mounted on an 80 metre track next to the sideline, enabling participants to slide in-line with the action, emulating the immersive experience of watching the game on a Samsung Curved UHDTV. Slideliner was supported with an integrated campaign driving sales and awareness of the new product range. The campaign garnered the brand over $101,806,202 in earned media, drove $8.6m in sales and grew UHDTV market share by 7.5% at a time when the category was in its third consecutive year of declining sales. Overview: Roller coasters, commuter trains and even luxury furniture design influenced the production of the Samsung SlideLiner. Hand-picked specialists were sourced from across the globe including aeronautical engineers, specialist mechanics, electrical engineers, metal fabricators, networking specialists and computer programmers. All metal components were CNC machined to ensure Slideliner was accurate to within .5 mm whilst wheel-bearings, fixings, and track were purpose made. Given the complexity of SlideLiner and that it was capable of travelling at speeds up to 30KpH between sports crowds and international rugby players meant safety was paramount. To appease safety authorities and the Australian Rugby Union, we developed and installed a myriad of features including 135m laser safety curtain that if breached shut down operation. Although the majority of the technology was public release, the nature of the project meant everything had to be customised to ensure it was fit for purpose, if not entirely built from scratch, including the wheels and track itself.

Samsung SlideLiner generated 38x return on investment, generated earned media in excess of $101 million, delivered a 7% increase in TV volume share and helped Samsung retain their No 1 position as the most preferred TV brand in Australia. Since the 2014 Bledisloe Cup, SlideLIner has activated on a global stage for all three matches of The 2015 International Champions Cup in Melbourne and will also be activating at the Bledisloe Cup 2015. Beyond 2014, SlideLiner has been shortlisted for rollout at major global sporting events including the Superbowl, and even in F1 pit lanes. Additionally, Samsung are exploring the possibility of integrating the SlideLiner as a permanent piece of infrastructure at several key sporting stadiums around Australia and are even in conversations with Racing Australia to ascertain viability of activating at the Melbourne Cup. In order to take the immersive viewing experience of the SlideLiner to the masses, the addition of a streaming 360 camera on-board the SlideLiner is being explored with the view to or users being able to download a Samsung SlideLiner app for the Samsung Gear VR headset, and enjoy an immersive virtual reality view of SlideLiner activations from the comfort of their own home.

Samsung SlideLiner was developed as a means for Samsung to showcase their innovation credentials amongst sports fans at live international sporting events, and as a metaphor for communicating the immersive viewing experience of Samsung’s innovative Curved TV range. The project required the design and build of an entirely new type of vehicle from the ground up, including the track. It utilised an array of technological features, aiding performance, comfort, and safety. Its complex track system utilised a custom-built steel winch to propel the vehicle. Computers monitored the winch speed, and other operational aspects, which were monitored by technicians who controlled SlideLiner remotely. SlideLiner's remote control station was hardwired into the track, enabling the remote monitoring of safety features, including visually displaying the status of every element, giving the driver full vehicle overview. Other safety features included custom-built laser light curtains that provided an invisible barrier that shut down operation if breached, as did seat belt sensors if undone. On-board, SlideLiner was a masterpiece of real-time social connectivity. Each seat had its own tablet with custom Samsung SlideLiner application enabling users to login with Twitter or Facebook and select from the 4 on-board cameras. Each camera was connected to a Vidiu streaming box that delivered the content across a local network to a media server and broadcast to the tablets, allowing users to switch between feeds and capture and share content. All content was then streamed to the Samsung “blue room” – an operations center beneath the stadium – to moderate, select and amplify the content across affiliate social channels and TV networks.