CASE STUDY: Samsung pairs up with indie band to launch camera

Background

Mirrorless cameras are a new breed of digital camera capable of DSLR quality shots in a much smaller camera. Samsung and its agency, Cheil Worldwide Seoul's problem was to get the NX100 to stand out in a forest of digital cameras.

Aim

To gain category leadership in the mirrorless camera market and differentiate the Samsung NX100 from its competitors.

Execution

Based on the insight that its target audience — members of the 'creative class' — would seek out the scene's latest and greatest work, Samsung and Cheil Worldwide decided to inspire creativity with the world’s top creative influencers on their next groundbreaking projects.

Samsung reached out to the indie rock band 'OK Go' to collaborate on its next innovative music video, this time shot with the NX100.
 The brand OK Go has inspired people all over the world with their unique brand of creativity. Their music videos have made tremendous impact on popular culture around the world. 
For the NX100, it made perfect sense to collaborate with them on the launch campaign that Cheil called “What’s your next project?” 


Launched last September, the digital marketing campaign focused on the co-creation process between Samsung and 'OK Go' that produced five web video episodes. The NX100 camera was used throughout by the band, from the moment they first encountered the camera to the making of the music video for their latest single 'Last leaf' - a unique 'toast-based' stop-motion animation. Five thousand pieces of toast at a rate of 15 pieces of toast per second were used to make this music video with the NX100.

We extended this idea to social media by allowing Facebook users to make 'toast' profile images of themselves.
While on tour, 'OK Go' used the NX100 to take photos of their fans from the stage. Which they promptly uploaded onto Facebook the next day so that the fans could tag themselves on the photos.

The NX100 campaign wasn’t just your ordinary marketing campaign. It was about collaboration and co-creation of great ideas. Which resulted in positive results for the Samsung brand.

Results

The music videos and five additional episodes aired on YouTube and MySpace received 1.1 million views and extensive news and online coverage. All without media buy support. The campaign has bene deemed one of the top five viral videos of 2010 by 'Time Magazine'.