Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

To create awareness of Samsung’s sponsorship of the Australian Olympic team, we leveraged a topical moment - the absence of crowds at the Tokyo Olympics. Crowd noise is proven to motivate and enhance athlete’s performance; so to replace it we created a unique Samsung brand experience – music that not only entertained, it was also scientifically proven to increase the performance of Olympic athletes. The songs were then released as performance enhancing music on Spotify for athletes everywhere to use and we also produced a mini-documentary that explained how the music had been made.

Background

Samsung was signed on to be an official sponsor of the Australian Olympic team. We saw this as an opportunity to shift perceptions of Samsung, from being cold and techy to being true supporters of Australians. However, research told us that as a first time sponsor, we needed to leverage and activate this sponsorship beyond simply naming rights and ad placements in order to maximise the effectiveness. The objective was clear; How can we add value to Australians during the Olympics beyond our official sponsorship activity?

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Working with Olympians, we gave them an edge over competitors by leveraging something already used by athletes across the globe. Music. We created personalized tracks, each scientifically proven to enhance performance. Every beat, lyric, instrument and artist was chosen to match their desired mind-state, event, and musical preference. To further enhance their performance, we tested and fine-tuned 13 audio-triggers including isochronic tones, personal mantras, cadence and more. Then brought the tracks to life with their favourite Australian artist. Athletes used their tracks to prepare and compete in Tokyo. As the world listened along on Spotify.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Samsung has a clear mission, to create human-driven innovations that defy barriers to progress. In the 2021 Olympics, there was a clear barrier... crowds, or the lack of them. Athletes everywhere say that the energy from the crowds can lift their performance. While we couldn’t put crowds in the stadium, we did, as part of our sponsorship deal, put phones in Athlete’s hands. We needed to use our phones, our ecosystem (headphones and smartwatch), and our innovative spirit to provide an unfair advantage that gave our Aussie athletes the best shot when they entered the Olympic Arena. And by doing so prove that Samsung is the leader in innovation that fuels human progress.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

The campaign was launched during the Olympics through our key assets; the Performance Enhancing Music tracks and the documentary film. The music was launched on Spotify through a branded playlist supported by Video & Audio takeovers on the platform. The documentary film was launched on YouTube and supported by 15s & 30s spots across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, SNAP and YouTube. In line with how music albums are dropped by artists, we launched OOH street posters during the Olympics period to infiltrate culture. We also connected with younger audiences through our SNAP AR lens, customer built AR tech that allowed our customers to create their own performance enhancing music. The campaign ran until the conclusion of the Paralympic games.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign delivered wide reach: 83 million impressions Over 183 thousand minutes listened 22 million video views The campaign also delivered 182,879 site visits, with a valuable 73.3% share of the audience being Apple customers. The campaign delivered a big uplift in Ad Recall across channels: +12.23% improvement in Ad Recall vs. Control on YouTube +45.45% improvement in Ad Recall vs. Control on SNAP +135.71% improvement in Ad Recall vs. Control on Twitter