#SUBTLYSPONSOREDPOST

Short List
Title#SUBTLYSPONSOREDPOST
BrandSAMSUNG/ SAMSUNG AUSTRALIA
Product / ServiceSAMSUNG A SERIES
CategoryD01. Use of Brand or Product Integration into a Programme or Platform
EntrantLEO BURNETT SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation LEO BURNETT SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Media Placement STARCOM Sydney, AUSTRALIA
PR EDELMAN Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production PRODIGIOUS Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Jason Williams Leo Burnett Chief Creative Officer
Grant McAloon Leo Burnett Sydney Executive Creative Director
Nigel Clark Leo Burnett Sydney Creative Director
Adrian Ely Leo Burnett Sydney Creative Director
Letizia Bozzolini Leo Burnett Sydney Associate Creative Director
Lisa O'Neil Leo Burnett Sydney Associate Creative Director
Adrian Jung Leo Burnett Sydney Head of Production
Laurent McMahon Leo Burnett Sydney Producer
Emily Taylor Leo Burnett Sydney CSO
Matt Chishom Leo Burnett Sydney Connection Strategy Director
Rebecca Morton Leo Burnett Sydney Client Service Group Head
Neil Duncan Leo Burnett Sydney Senior Business Director
Laura Egan Leo Burnett Sydney Senior Business Manager
Emily Fisher Leo Burnett Sydney Senior Business Manager
Megan Smith Leo Burnett Sydney Content Writer
James Healey Leo Burnett Sydney Social Manager
Brooke Lagana Leo Burnett Sydney Content Producer
Maddy Purdy Leo Burnett Sydney Content Director
Arun Surendran Leo Burnett Sydney Junior Editor
Dan Crozier Leo Burnett Sydney Studio Manager
Max Miller Prodigious Director/DOP
Madeleine Pike Prodigious Producer
Cate Hartmann Prodigious Post Production
Tim Pietranski Prodigious Executive Producer
Sam Bruce Prodigious Editor
Aleks Manou Prodigious Motion Graphics
Marcus Timpson Prodigious Colourist

Why is this work relevant for Media?

The Samsung Galaxy A Series is a mid-tier phone perfectly priced for a younger audience who usually rely on their parents to buy their devices. With our main objective being awareness among Gen Z, we created a mobile-first campaign tailor made for the media they love to consume – Instagram, Faceboook, YouTube, and Tik Tok. Our use of Tik Tok being a first for a brand in Australia. It was also supported with advertising integration with Junkee, a Gen Z publisher, again a first of its kind in Australia.

Background

To get the Samsung Galaxy A on the consideration list for Gen Z, we were tasked with launching the phone using influencers - people our audience defer to. But we knew that Gen Z are extremely dismissive and sceptical of branded content and fake endorsements. So we needed to find a way to be authentic while also being entertaining enough to be a welcome disruption to the online environment – the place Gen Z spend most of their time.

Describe the creative idea/insights (30% of vote)

We created a social media influencer campaign that embraced and poked fun at the whole idea of #SponsoredPosts, with the most unsubtle posts and music video social media has ever seen. Teaming up with a local comedy group (Aunty Donna) and four popular influencers, we created a music video, teaching influencers how to do a sponsored post… in a not so subtle way.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

We found Gen Z’s typically used their phones to cure the boredom of their lives – school, work, friends, family, repeat – leading to them using their phones for 3 main reasons: content creation (on social), content consumption (Netflix, YouTube, music, social, gaming and more) and connection (friends and family). To reach them, we had to position Galaxy A as the antidote for their boredom. Discovering that Gen Z were becoming desensitized by inauthentic sponsored posts, we decided to use social media influencers to poke fun at the whole idea of #SponsoredPosts, with the Galaxy A Series at the heart of everything, targeting Gen Z on platforms they use most. We also ran targeted display & video ads in a more direct manner, so that parents had a good understanding of the phone and its value, as they were often the ultimate purchasers for our young audience.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Launching in school holidays, when Gen Z were most hungry for content, our hero #SubtlySponsponsored music video was cutdown into edits promoting phone features for a range of platforms used by Gen Z: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok - each designed specifically for the platform – the right aspect ratios, sound off/on and all the other platform best practices. We got our influencers to do their own ‘organic’ #SubtlySponsoredPosts and created a Snapshat filter that transformed anyone into an influencer so they could unsubtly promote the phone themselves. Gen Z could also do an #unsubtle Tik Tok challenge to win a phone.

List the results (30% of vote)

From a creative standpoint, we have seen through brand uplift studies, that exposure to the campaign is creating a 7% lift in Favorability of the brand and a 13% lift in Purchase Intent of the product. This is supported by an extremely high 16.33 average VTR across all platforms. This campaign launched in June 2019 and Samsung are seeing extremely positive results as the Galaxy A has become the undisputed #1 mid-tier smartphone brand in Australia with 42% market share, with Apple its closest rival at 22%. Sales beat expectations by over 125%. Not to mention 93% of our audience watching the hero video all the way through.

Links

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