And when I say ‘fans’, I’m referring to humans and their obsessive liking over a certain product or thing. Not the fan that you use when the weather is hot and you need to cool down. [*insert fan memes].
Now moving on…….What would you say if I told that you no longer have to camp outside of the shops for days in order to get the next Samsung phone. Rather, you can line up from the comfort of your phone bed, in your own home?!
That’s right folks, you heard me correctly! I’m saying we can ditch camping outside for several days, in the cold and rainy weather, with no showers and proper food to be able to get your hands on the latest Samsung phone. In addition, I’m saying we can fire half of the marketing team as we no longer need them since we got our fans to help us out!!
There’s a new way to be the first person on the planet to touch the new smashing 5 inch touchscreen display with a staggering resolution of 1080 pixels x 1920 pixels from the very comfort of your own home.
As the world is evolving and changing, as individuals, our preferences, interactions and liking’s are also being altered. The changes in communication is transforming, including advertising and marketing itself too. Moving from traditional print media, we are seeing integrated marketing communications and digital campaigns instead. Using social media, web 2.0, increase in communication intermediaries and interaction with the targeted population is rapidly rising (Chaffey, Chadwick, Johnston & Mayer, 2006).
In launching Samsung Galaxy S4’s phone, a campaign was rolled out, calling it “THE VIRTUAL/SMART PHONE LINE”. This campaign used Samsung’s fans and an integrated marketing communication tools in order to promote their latest phone model.
How this campaign worked was in order for yourself to be in front of the line, you would have to get the most re-tweets, likes and comments. Samsung’s aim was to use social media and the targeted audience to create awareness to the public. This was a form of advertising that Samsung completed, where your position in the queue was dependent on your number of shares in regards to the produce content information which could be taken from the getinline.co.nz website, and then posted to your Twitter and Facebook account. So basically, the more shares and comments you got, the higher you would be in the virtual line.
A giant pubic LED Billboard was displayed around Aotea Square, and each participant were able to view their queue in a tangible real world space. This was then considered the largest LED screen installation in the history of New Zealand. Any posts or tweets made by these participants had speech bubbles floating over their head. What was even more amazing was the fact that virtual avatars were reacting to the time of day, and weather. They would hold umbrellas when it started raining, and when it approached night time, they would wrap themselves up in blankets and sleeping bags.
Here’s the video that describes the Samsung ‘Virtual Line’ campaign:
As a result of the campaign, those who took the positions of standing first three in the virtual line received the new Samsung Galaxy S4, and a luxury weekend in Auckland as a reward, where they are able to pick up their dazzling new Samsung galaxy S4 handsets (Campaign Brief, 2013).
The campaign was successful in the sense that it was appropriate, where individuals could be free from having to camp outside for days under the sky. Additionally, the medium tools that they used were highly relevant. Social media was a medium that resonated extremely well with the target audience.With 12,000 online participants lining up for 2 weeks, and sharing 85,000 product featured stories to over 15 million individuals, you can’t deny that this campaign wasn’t successful!!
In addition, since the launch of the phone, value share of the smartphone market for Samsung has seen to rise sky high, rising by 15%. The campaign even picked up a Bronze and Gold at the Spikes Festival of Creativity.
So, what do you think? Want to hear my thoughts? I thought the campaign was great. I no longer have to take days off work to go and camp outside. I no longer have to trade in my comfy bed for camping out on the streets to get my hands on the new phone.
I felt that this Samsung campaign was rather successful due to the fact that it used a range of integrated eMarketing tools consisting of: (Pickton & Broderick, 2001)
- range of media and promotional tools
- selecting the most effective promotional mix
- using range of target audiences
- clear identified communication objective
Additionally, this campaign could see elements taken from the post about “7 ways to create a successful integrated marketing campaign” which was another reason as to why the campaign was so successful (Schiff, 2014).
Moreover, this campaign was successful in terms of going viral due to the fact that participants felt that this campaign was worthwhile for them. There was value that they could take from this campaign once they passed on the campaign message and shared it to others (Dobele, Toleman & Beverland, 2005).
Furthermore, another possible reason as to why this campaign was so successful in it going viral was due to the campaign entailed 3 important factors of the 3 R’s which included: (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2011)
- right message
- right messenger
- right environment
Now for those interested in wanting to know more about the 3 R’s to making it viral, be sure to tune in to my next blog.
Thanks,
Your Driver
Teresa
DMTERESA 