Samsung| The Golden Egg

Challenge

Samsung was about to launch the Galaxy SII and was looking for a partner that could help it reach out to its primary target group: mobile phone enthusiasts. This group was the earliest adapter of new technology. But that was the whole challenge: finding the correct content partner for generating the hype and sales for the Samsung SII.

Insight

The brand realised that game developer Rovia’s popular game Angry Birds would be the perfect fit to reach the TG. For Samsung, it was the perfect partnership, because Angry Birds enthusiasts were exactly the kind of mobile pioneers for whom it had tailored the new Galaxy SII.

Solution

In one of the deepest partnerships ever signed by Rovia, Samsung created a secret Golden Egg level which could only be unlocked by coming to Samsung’s co-branded site to find clues.

This was the first time that the wildly popular game had ever allowed a partner to reveal a secret new level to the game. It was also the broadest partnership ever agreed by the developer Rovio which helped Samsung to market directly to millions of Angry Birds’ biggest fans. 

It was just the sort of treasure hunt that die-hard fans loved to follow - and then to boast about when they had unlocked the level. The co-branded site was central to reaching players with detailed messages about the Galaxy SII.

Samsung excluded the Samsung logo from the secret Golden Egg level itself for fear of alienating players, but it gently reinforced the brand by using Galaxy SII colours and graphics throughout. 

And in a masterstroke that greatly extended the length of time users spent on the new level, this level came equipped with a special ‘low gravity’ environment as the Angry Birds were going into space. That meant it was challenging and frustratingly addictive even for veteran players, all of whom had to learn new tricks and techniques to progress.

Banner ads inside Angry Birds directed people to the Samsung site where they could find the clues to unlock the secret Golden Egg level. Samsung bought video pre-rolls and interstitial ads in which Angry Birds characters themselves told players where to go looking. Samsung promoted posts to the game’s Facebook and Twitter followers as well.

On the co-branded site, additional offerings were made to users such as competitions to win Angry Birds toys and merchandise.

Results

The discovery of the secret level generated so much internet chatter that it wasn’t just fans who shared tips on social networks, but also technology journalists who reported on the phenomenon. 

Nearly half a million users came to the co-branded site to pick up the clues that would unlock the secret Golden Egg level and almost 15,000 clicked through to the Galaxy SII product page to learn more. 

The game level itself was played 1.6 million times by the time the promotional activity ended. 69% of players said the level made them think of the Galaxy SII. Brand awareness jumped 10% after the campaign period and purchase intent jumped 4%.

BRAND:

Samsung Mobile

BRAND OWNER:

Samsung

CATEGORY:

Telecoms/Mobile

REGION:

Australia

Austria

France

Germany

Indonesia

Italy

Singapore

Spain

Switzerland

United Kingdom

DATE:

July - August 2011

AGENCY:

Starcom

MEDIA CHANNEL:

Branded Content,Experiential,Digital,Mobile,Online,PR,Print,Retail/POS,Sponsorship,TV

RIM: BlackBerry Unveils BB10

Any doubt that the BlackBerry 10 is central to the survival of Research In Motion was likely erased on Wednesday as the company not only unveiled its new operating system and phones, but changed its corporate name to "BlackBerry," too. "We have a fantastic brand, BlackBerry, and we are known as such all over the world, except in North America," CMO Frank Boulben said in a video interview at the launch. "We wanted to take full advantage of that global, iconic brand."
"We have redefined ourselves inside and out," said CEO Thorsten Heins, speaking to launch events held across the globe from New York to Jakarta. "RIM becomes BlackBerry. It is one brand, it is one promise." He declined to specify the company's marketing spend for the corporate rebrand and a global launch of BlackBerry 10 that includes Sunday's Super Bowl ad buy, but characterized it as in the "hundreds of million dollars."







Along with a radically different operating system, the company introduced two new phones — the keyboard-equipped Q10 and the touch-screen Z10 — which employ a gesture-based interface similar to Apple's pioneering iPhone. Yet the new BlackBerry OS offers a host of distinct features.
"Flow," for instance, allows users to move between apps with the mere swipe of a finger, while "Balance" partitions users' work and personal worlds into two distinct environments, keeping data and messages in each from intermingling. 




Both phones sport a sharp 4.2-inch screen display and sports 16 gigabytes of storage, a memory-card slot for expansion and front and back cameras that record in high definition (1080p back, 720p front). Popular BlackBerry Message software enables free phone and video calls while screencasting.
Other features include Story Maker, which automatically grabs photos and turns them into videos with music, and an ability to "learn" and mimic users' writing patterns. Time Shift, its photo software, allows selections to be made from a series of quickly shot images.
BlackBerry 10 will launch with 70,000 apps including Angry Birds, Skype, Yelp, Twitter, Spotify, Foursquare, Dropbox, the New York Times and Amazon Kindle, while noticeably missing are Netflix, Draw Something, Pinterest, Hipstamatic, Instagram and major airline and bank apps. 



Also on offer with the new Z10 and Q10, a vast range of entertainment options, including an integrated solution for music, movies and TV shows, with major content partners including Walt Disney Studios and Sony Pictures, Universal Music and Warner Music Group.

The Z10 will not be available in the U.S. until March, while the United Kingdom will be able to purchase it Thursday, Canada on Feb. 5 and the United Arab Emirates on Feb. 10. Verizon will sell it for $199 on a two-year agreement, with other carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile expected to offer similar deals.
Release dates and a price for the Q10 were not given on Wednesday. Asked about the delay in rolling out the phone in the U.S., 



"I really do believe that the consumer market as a whole is ready for something new," said Kevin Burden, head of mobility at Strategy Analytics, ahead of the BB10 reveal. "I have to believe that there is some level of user fatigue that plays into the longevity of some of these platforms," he added, referring to Google Inc.'s Android and Apple's iOS, which are both more than five years old. "RIM is probably timing it right.

Does Anyone Really Believe Advertising Any More?

Apparently consumers are taking this old saying to heart: "Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear." Market research firm Lab42 just released a study that revealed that 76% of its respondents think advertisements contain exaggerated claims, and a mere 3% think ads are "very accurate."
According to Lab42's survey of 500 respondents, while 38% wish for more accuracy in advertising, only 17% would like to see more laws in the United States that regulate advertising. In the U.S., advertising is seen as free speech, but that's not the case in other countries such as the UK, where ads are routinely banned for being misleading or exaggerated.

Slim-Fast. Slim-Fast. Slim-Fast. Slim-Fast.

The cleaner you are, the dirtier you get.

Logos’ Back

Saudi Post stunt

Branding 3.0 | Luxury icon brands

Newsweek's last print issue before go all-digital features a hashtag on the cover: #LastPrintIssue!

Merry Christmas from Durex

Apple’s WWDC News: Siri Makes New Friends But It's All About the Mac

In addition to an even trippier special edition of its tie-dye logo, Apple unveiled more than one dozen new products today at the brand's highly anticipated 2012Worldwide Developers Conference. While Apple’s main growth drivers remain the iPhone and the iPad, its Mac line remains a cornerstone.

Popout

The 17-inch MacBook Pro is apparently disappearing — so welcome a new (thinner) MacBook Pro with Retina display, 15.4 inches across with pixel density of 2880 x 1800, weighs less than 4.5 pounds and has 7 hours of battery life, and an HDMI slot to connect to HDTV. With third-generation Ivy Bridge processors, and Nvidia GeForce GT650M graphics, the starting price is $2,199.

A new MacBook Air, with USB 3.0, 512GB storage is equipped with Intel Ivy Bridge chips, offering up to Core i7 with Turbo Boost, bringing the processor speed up to 3.2GHz. Hard drive options include a 512GB SSD, and graphics that are 60% faster. The 11-inch model (left) starts at $999, and a 13-inch goes for $1199.

On the iOS 6 front, Siri is extending her reach the on iPad, giving sports scores, integrating Yelp (restaurants) and Rotten Tomatoes (movie) reviews, and OpenTable for dining reservations. There’s a Do Not Disturb feature that lets you ‘white list’ certain callers and switch from a current call to an important call. Siri can also launch apps, post to Facebook and be used internationally.

Apple is now allowing Facetime to work over the cellular network and is consolidating a user's Apple ID and phone number, enabling calls and messages to be picked up via iPhone or iPad. Users can organize offline reading lists, share photo streams and a Passbook app stores boarding passes, store cards and movie tickets.
Siri is being integrated into cars through an "Eyes Free" button built into the steering wheel of your car, and so far BMW, GM, Toyota, Mercedes, Honda, Audi and Jaguar have signed on.

Google Maps has been replaced with Apple's own 3D map system, integrated with Siri, and includes business listings, traffic maps with incidents, and real-time crowd-sourced data for traffic flow.

OS X Mountain Lion, $19.99, will be available next month with about 200 new features including better iCloud integration and built-in Dictation. Apple's iCloud service boasts 125 million registered users and apps include mail, contacts, calendar, Messages, Reminders, and Notes along with "Documents in the Cloud," which syncs documents from Pages, Keynote, Preview, and TextEdit.

Apple announced closer ties between iOS6 and Facebook so that users can post pictures and video directly to their accounts without using the Facebook app, and post updates via Siri. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced 400 million App Store accounts, with 650,000 apps in its App Store and 30 billion apps downloaded so far. To date, Apple has produced $5 billion in sales for developers.
Reactions across social media are mixed, but this comment from Steve Weinstein sums it up thus:

“That people are treating every word Apple says like they were God reading the Ten Commandments. I'm not saying that a Retina Display isn't impressive or a better Siri should never see the light of day, but people (especially the Apple fanatics) are over reacting.
Other than a Retina Display, I can get an HP Envy 15 with the same specifications (minus the Retina display but has 1920 x 1080 anti-glare) for $1909. You could even subtract $100 if you go with Windows 7 Home Premium. That is a whole $200-$300 less for a MacBook Pro clone. It is probably even cheaper if you go with the lower end "high performance" line that OEMs build.
So really, I am excited for new features for the iPhone but at the same time, disappointed that people are treating everything they say like the Ten Commandments.”