Objectives

• This year, Samsung challenged VH1 to create a program to promote brand awareness among affluent, urban tastemakers for the Galaxy S9 smartphone and its capabilities. Knowing that our fanatic fanbase of RuPaul's Drag Race matches this audience, VH1 partnered with Samsung to throw the ultimate co-branded season 10 finale viewing party. From the party, we worked to amplify exclusive Galaxy S9 captured short form video and long form video across VH1's social platforms to our 5MM+ devoted followers that make up our fandom.
• As the RuPaul's Drag Race finale is the Super Bowl of drag, VH1 knew that partnering with Samsung at this time would make the biggest impact not only on-the-ground, but socially. VH1 strategically used a small budget to create a co-branded environment to serve as the backdrop for all videos produced. While fans watched the finale in front of a 3-story Samsung screen, our finalists watched the show from a Samsung branded executive suite. There, VH1 captured the queens' live reactions to the episode including the moment the queens found out who won Season 10 and created a long form video that was pushed out on social channels and VH1.com.

Strategy and Execution

During the filming of the season 10 finale, our production team captures footage of each queen winning the crown to sustain the secrecy and anticipation of who wins. This format is used to keep the mystery of who wins from the queens and fans until the episode actually airs. To capitalize on the surprise crowning moment and amplify the awareness of Samsung 837, we co-branded the entire viewing party experience for the fans and talent reaction.

Our VH1 team's greatest challenges were timing and budget. An activation of this caliber would normally take at least two months to plan and execute. Our team worked closely with Samsung to orchestrate the event and create a social rollout plan in two and a half weeks! As soon as the deal closed, we worked quickly with our press, talent, and social/digital teams to map out the execution in its entirety. From a budget standpoint, Samsung wanted to work with Drag Race, but didn't have the media dollars to support a full convergent sponsorship. So, with a tight budget and strategic plan to use Samsung's existing space, we leaned into the on-the-ground and social channels to make the biggest impact.

Results

• The RuPaul's Drag Race season 10 finale was the most watched finale yet! The strategic timing of Samsung partnering with VH1 at this record breaking moment of pop culture lead to unbelievable on-the-ground and social results surpassing Samsung and VH1's goals.
• On-the-ground, our team's efforts promoting the event were rewarded with the Samsung 837 space at full capacity in fan attendance. Our devoted fans interacted with our photo activations, shared content from the event, and mingled with talent and industry leaders.
• The success of the social campaign helped Samsung reach their goal of brand awareness among a key demographic inside and outside of the event's four walls. Our social and digital content delivered 11.1M impressions (an over-delivery of 40%), 3.9M engagements (10x the benchmark), and 6.5M video views (2x the benchmark). In particular, the 11.1M delivered impressions were astounding as they were delivered in just 48 hours. With our long-form video, we also surpassed our goals as the video of the queens reacting to the episode trended on YouTube the following day and was highlighted as the #2 Branded Post on Facebook.

Media