The Campaign

Launching Samsung’s Galaxy S9 by hijacking Australia’s most iconic face. 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 Australia’s most famous face – Luna Park. 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, in front of a packed Sydney Harbour. Faces would light up as the sun went down, piggybacking Vivid’s high evening footfall, generating a huge consumer UGC-driving opportunity.

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 AR emoji creation area. And the iconic Luna Park façade, for the interactive projection. All while also partnering with Vivid, Australia’s largest festival, which attracts over 2.4 million people every year. With just 10 weeks from briefing production to going live, timings were extremely tight. The consumer experience included two large physical builds, as well as multiple technological systems to project, capture and process the emojis in real-time. PR implementation was just as tight on timings, including the development of assets and materials to create pre-promotion and opening night opportunities across the major broadcast networks and national news publications, as well as responding to numerous media requests on the fly.

Tier 1: 210 total pieces of coverage equating to 10+ million in earned reach (OTS) 31 unique articles; 179 syndicated Live weather cross on national morning segment on Nine Network’s the Today Show, referenced as “one of the coolest activations” Channel Nine News, featuring Australian Minister of Tourism as spokesperson Channel 7 News 7 million social media impressions (6.5million paid, 500,000 organic) Tier 2: Average consumer dwell time with experience: 48 minutes Conversion rate passers-by to engaged guests: 17% vs. target 5%. Tier 3: “The Galaxy S9s highest sales period.” Jamie Skaltsounis, Senior Experience Manager, Samsung Australia

The Situation

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. So, To get the feature talked about in the biggest way possible, we created a live installation that infiltrated Vivid, Australia’s largest festival of light and ideas. A festival that attracts more than 2.4 million people a year. The headline act news networks were talking about? The once in a lifetime opportunity to experience Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 and see your AR emoji face projected onto Australia’s most famous face – Luna Park.

The Strategy

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 three 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.