Samsung had an innovative product featuring the best smartphone camera on the market, but they were struggling to build momentum with creatively inclined 18-29 consumers who are allergic to traditional advertising. How could Samsung reach a savvy Gen Z audience and drive consideration for its Galaxy S21? Solving this creative challenge required the combined strengths of a studio, creative agency, and streaming giant.
A run-of-the-mill branded content piece would not break through. We had to create something truly binge worthy! Thus Exposure was born. A mobile photography competition series in which eight contestants compete for a $250K prize. Six hour-long episodes challenged contestants in every aspect of photography. Together with Samsung, BBH, and Westbrook Productions, we produced a real TV show that organically demonstrated the S21’s awesome camera features with storylines that appealed to the passions of Hulu’s young streaming audience. We focused on the human stories of the photographers, giving audiences underdog artists to fall in love with and cheer for - while hero-ing the Galaxy S21 as the ultimate tool for their self-expression and inspiring viewers to create similar photos at home.
The show was surrounded with a robust marketing ecosystem, integrating touchpoints ranging from the Hulu platform’s reco-engine, to paid digital, PR, organic social, boosted social, and owned Samsung properties like Samsung.com, email, and even monster OOH placements in Times Square.
Assets were rolled out over two months, shifting messaging according to phase. In pre-launch and launch, we led exclusively with promotional show-driven messaging. Once we created an audience, we retargeted them with heavy-hitting digital assets that went deep on S21 features in the fuel and sustain phases as the show was wrapping up and in the weeks after finale.
Exposure was a hit on Hulu (top 10 reality and top 15 overall show premiere week, 45% 18-34 audience), and smashed consideration metrics 12x over across the board for Samsung brand, product, and camera superiority perception. We also increased “Proud to Own” metrics’ absolute score and competitive index, and narrowed “high quality camera with superior function” perception gap vs Samsung’s #1 competitor.
