The Campaign

Turning Australia’s most iconic face into a live billboard for Samsung’s Galaxy S9 The idea was to launch the Samsung Galaxy S9 and its new AR emoji feature, by giving Australians the once in a lifetime opportunity to see their AR emoji face projected live onto Luna Park, Australia’s most iconic face – essentially becoming a giant live billboard seen by millions across Sydney Harbour. The interactive brand experience allowed Australians create their unique AR emoji on the Galaxy S9 handset, then see it projected in real time onto the face of Luna Park. Faces would light up as the sun went down, piggybacking Vivid’s high evening footfall.

Creative Execution

The installation was a massive undertaking, with two bespoke builds implemented on two of Sydney’s most famous, and heavily regulated sites. The Opera House forecourt, for the emoji creation area. And the iconic Luna Park façade that became a giant media space. While also partnering with Vivid, Australia’s largest festival – that attracts over 2.4 million people every year. With just 10 weeks from briefing production, to going live, the timings where tight. It included two large physical builds, as well as multiple systems to project, capture and process emojis in real-time.

“Samsung Australia’s most successful activation.” Jamie Skaltsounis, Samsung Australia · “The Galaxy S9s highest sales period.” Jamie Skaltsounis, Samsung Australia · 7 million social media impressions · 2 million OOH impressions · 10 million earned media impressions, including news coverage across major TV networks · 17,000 Luna Park facelifts · Average dwell time with experience 48 minutes Conversion rate passersby to engaged guests: 17% vs. target 5%.

Samsung was launching their new Galaxy S9 smartphone. The coolest feature: AR emojis; proprietary face-mapping software allowing users to communicate via their own unique animated avatar. To get the feature talked about, we created an interactive installation that infiltrated Vivid, Australia’s largest festival of light. Through the installation, Australians projected their AR emoji faces onto Luna Park, Australia’s most iconic face – essentially creating a giant billboard for Samsung that was seen live by millions across Sydney Harbour for a month.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Target audience: Samsung aims to recruit all smartphone users, but our bullseye was ‘progressive lifestylers’. Those who see experiences as a way to live life to fullest and as a part of who they are and the stories they share. Insight: smartphones are a canvas for self-expression. And emoji’s are the new shortcut for this storytelling. Strategy: Show how the Galaxy S9 inspires and enables storytelling with AR emojis, through a phone-in-hand experience that changes the brand perception of those partaking, that’s big enough and visible enough to capture the attention and imagination of all Australians. To excite ‘progressive lifestylers’, we followed four strategic principles: Add incremental value to Vivid, don’t just show up. Don’t be a one-of-many experience, be a once-in-a-lifetime Put features at the heart of the idea, but the consumer in the soul of it. Make it seen and talked about by everyone.