We wanted a campaign that delivered major engagement, but for Holiday 2021, our work was cut out for us. Consumer confidence was high, but Samsung research revealed shoppers’ plans to be more selective in 2021 than ever before. As COVID shrank shoppers’ social circles, it improved the depth of their relationships and understanding of each other. This year, shoppers were hunting for THE perfect gift — one that wowed and showed how deeply they “got” the ones they love.
Our task: Break through the holiday noise, reach gift-givers and get Samsung on the top of their lists.
With shoppers’ attitudes shifting to distinctive giving, typical wrapping paper wouldn’t do. The best gift needs the best gift wrap. And in this case, we went beyond pretty paper to bring shoppers the best rap.
Our first challenge was to find rappers who fit our formula for success. We wanted artists who possessed a specific combination of traits (below) but who also seemed to reflect Samsung’s uniqueness as a brand. And we only had two short weeks to find them! We got to work, conducting an extensive search process to identify the perfect rappers for this project. From an initial “short” list of 37 rappers, we coordinated across teams for an in-depth vetting process that measured:
We found everything we needed — and more — in award-winning rappers Future and Paloma Mami. Through our partnership, we set out to create five videos for digital and social media platforms.
But first, we needed to find directors with a blend of talents, including:
For our Future videos, we found these qualities in Miles and AJ, a dynamic directorial duo. The pair is well versed in shooting both iconic music videos and commercials with high-caliber talent, and their style transformed the camera itself into a character. It was essential to have an equally impressive director for Paloma Mami. Kacho Lopez is a six-time nominee and two-time winner of the Latin Grammy in the Music Video of the Year category. His expertise with household names and understanding of Latino culture made him a standout. With these talented directors, we achieved our goal — filming five spots in four unique locations in only five days.
These highly memorable, stylish spots blend Galaxy product features with consumer passions. Each authentic story focused on a singular gifting occasion, deeply rooted in gift-giver motivations and gift-receiver lifestyles. Thematically, each video showed exactly why Galaxy was the perfect gift to enhance their passions. Even with the tight timing, we pushed ourselves to take the campaign to the next level — we knew fans would be craving behind-the-scenes footage with a roster of all-stars like this one. So, we captured and edited exclusive content for both of the rappers that was shared in organic social placements.
Due to versioning to cover for lengths, countries and aspect ratios, we ended up with 270+ different versions of our videos for this campaign.
Our ads ran globally in ten countries during the peak holiday shopping season — late October 2021 through January 2022 — and exceeded performance expectations. On YouTube, the engagement rate was 201% above Samsung’s standard benchmark after the first week. In the U.S., the click-through rate was 45% higher and the video-completion rate was 46% higher than Samsung’s averages for the entire year.
Our campaign made waves in social feeds as well. Comments like “I am glad Samsung is trying to be different from same old same old apple. Awesome ad bro” and “Por Paloma me cambio a Samsung,” (“I switch to Samsung for Paloma”) rolled in daily on the videos. In other social media, fans even created and posted their own music video made from a compilation of the ads.
Our holiday campaign was a chart-topping success — standing out with our ultra-selective gift-giver audience during the most crowded shopping season.
