Samsung Galaxy Note9 Launch

Samsung had the golden opportunity to launch the new Galaxy Note 9, superior in power to any other device on the market. The challenge was that its functional features – memory, processing power and battery life – needed a layer of emotional engagement to get the nation excited.

Our goal was to launch the Galaxy Note 9 in such a way that the entire country would take notice and want to know more. Our creative brief was to communicate the Note 9’s immense power.

The launch required us to generate highly engaging content that could be disseminated through Samsung brand ambassadors and handpicked influencers, generating strong organic reach.

In a cluttered and noisy landscape, we needed to quickly position the Galaxy Note 9 as premium, desirable and powerful. To drive social sharing and ensure influencer engagement, we needed influencers to physically play a role in the launch themselves, feel ownership, and give them an affinity for the brand. If they did, so would their followers: our millennial audience.

Our key insight was that the most immediate and visual way to demonstrate power is scale, and scale is what would make our hard-to-please influencers get immersed and excited and share their experience.

To launch the super powerful Samsung Galaxy Note 9 in New Zealand, we needed a super powerful big idea.

We used the Galaxy Note 9 to literally change the view in Auckland City.

We turned an iconic Auckland building into a blank canvas and used the power of the Note 9 to project enormous ‘live’ artworks onto it.

Some of New Zealand’s biggest names went head to head in art battles, each creating unique artworks against each other. Live. Their brief was to use the Note9 and S Pen to creatively interpret the powerful features of the device. Pioneering technology projected the works from their device onto the side of the building in real time.

The scale of the live projections captured the imagination of Auckland and were shared further afield via a social amplification strategy.

VIP guests watched the projections at this exclusive event, whilst superstar DJs the Jupiter Project mixed soundtracks live for each battle. A site-specific light installation designed by Angus Muir provided guests with a backdrop to create and share further content on the Note9.

For the final art battle, two of New Zealand’s hottest artists, Otis Frizzell and Callum Rooney, were each given 35 minutes to respond to the brief: Power. Their completed artworks were shared across social media and fans could vote for their favourite. The winning work became part of the Galaxy Note9 OOH campaign, running on billboards across the country.

Samsung reached over 2.6 million people through this powerful live experience and content. The Note9 NZ Launch was an innovative idea that leveraged new technology and the key features of the device – a powerful way to launch the world’s most powerful smartphone, from the world’s leading technology brand.