Insight
TV’s have never been smarter or sexier. Bursting with state of the art technology inside, from connected screens to motion control & facial recognition and packaged in the sleekest, largest designs that could rival the mobile category, new TV’s should be front and centre in every home.
But with a market pre-conditioned to appraise TV’s based purely on their picture quality and screen size, some of the amazing technological developments were not seen to be adding value to the TV experience. Amidst this challenging market climate, Samsung was about to launch the world’s first Curved UHD LED TV. The category leading curved screen provides an immersive TV viewing experience, making you feel surrounded at every viewing session, no matter what your passion area or interest.
But you only full understood the extreme difference in viewing quality and entertainment possibilities of the Samsung Curved UHD LED TV if you sat in front of one, you have to experience it first hand. While in-store demonstrations were a tried and tested method it wasn’t going to keep Samsung at the number one spot in the market for long.
To continue to triumph over its long-standing rivals Sony, Samsung Curved TV needed an experience that would place the unique screen front and centre stage and prove to consumers that curved was the new flat.
Strategy
In a country fixated on smartphones & tablets, Australians lost passion around the one screen that used to dominate their attention (74% of Australians use a second device whilst watching TV, Nielsen 2014). Bespoke research (HEC 2014) showed that consumers viewed their second screen experience as the best experience, meaning that TV’s often struggled to engage consumer’s full attention.
To add to the matter, consumers were not excited by the entertainment opportunities that lie behind the screen. Curved screens were at the risk of falling into the ‘fad’ category, a technological development that isn’t understood or valued by consumers.
Starcom MediaVest Group had to prove to consumers that the Samsung Curved TV could unlock a world of greater entertainment potential and rightfully reinstate the best seat in the house as the one in front of a Samsung Curved screen.
The agency devised a two phase strategic approach. First, create an immersive experience that physically highlights how close the Samsung Curved TV can bring you to the content you love, and secondly, showcase the endless entertainment possibilities of a Samsung Curved TV to a nation who think they’ve seen it all.
The unbelievable stadium experience that the Samsung Curved TV delivers when watching sport at home, combined with our heritage in rugby & partnership with the Wallabies provided the perfect passion platform. It needed to give them something they’d never seen before. Something that would deliver an unrivalled and unparalleled view of play at Australia’s favourite sporting event, just like the Samsung curved TV could.
SMG turned the stadium into the greatest lounge room by debuting the ultimate seat in the house at the nation’s favourite rugby series, the Bledisloe Cup.
Execution
Introducing Samsung SlideLiner, the world’s first on pitch, tech-enabled couch that’s moves with the players, throughout the game to bring fans closer to the action than ever before.
The Samsung SlideLiner is a four person, fully connected couch, mounted on a purpose built 80 metre track positioned metres from the field of play. As the game moves up and down the field, so does the SlideLiner, topping speeds of 20km an hour to bring fans the undisputed best seat in the house at some of the best international Wallabies games (including those against the New Zealand All Blacks and South African Springboks!).
On the pitch, every seat, at what is being coined ‘the world’s most connected couch’, had an internet-enabled Samsung tablet that allowed the winning fans to capture action shots during the game, allowing for real-time social posting from the side-line to fans at home. Off pitch, the experience was amplified in real-time across a host of social platforms (Instagram, Twitter & Facebook) as well as being supported with bespoke TVC featuring the Wallabies, online content of the winner’s journey & a chance to experience SlideLiner themselves at numerous display installations across the country.
To further the unparalleled viewing experience, the agency invited rugby hero’s John Eales, Nick McArdle & George Gregan to broadcast live pre-game from SlideLiner, as well as taking this experience in-store by bringing the Wallabies team in-store to greet fans & utilising former Australian Wallaby Captain, Nathan Sharpe, to be the SlideLiner ambassador.
Results
Victory was sweet both on and off the pitch. SlideLiner delivered a 6% increase in volume share and a 2% increase in value share, firmly securing Samsung’s position as the #1 brand in the market.
Rugby fans and the nation alike were drawn to the pitch-side innovation as word spread across the 137 pieces of PR coverage, delivering $11.4million in earned media value of & a total in-game & media value of $101million across local & international markets. The exceptional amount of coverage from the on pitch innovation reached over 34million people and secured a media ROI of a staggering 3854%!
Sports most immersive fan experience lit up social media with #SlideLiner receiving 1.85million trend impressions, 392,000 mention exposures, 84,000 active engagements and over 2 million impressions to fans across Australia. Facebook activity delivered Samsung’s highest ever click-through-rate of 2.3% (up from 0.7% year before) with 39,883 people requesting further information on the curved UHD TV & over 8,000 people commenting.
Fox Sports rugby posted that ‘as far as match-day innovations go, Samsung SlideLiner would have to be one of the best we’ve ever seen.’