Samsung redefines waiting game for Galaxy S4 launch

Joss Davidge, Business Director of brand experience agency BEcause, continues his weekly quest for great marketing ideas. This week he looks at how Samsung built excitement around the launch of the S4 in New Zealand.
 
Brands know the value of brand loyalists. Those people who follow you, those people who readily engage, those people who carry your message to their friends and family. They are your friends and giving back to them is a great way to stimulate a deeper relationship.
 
This week I spotted this great integrated campaign that used super fans to build a buzz around the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S4 in New Zealand.   Instead of letting people simply camp out and wait in line for the product release date (a common ritual these days), Samsung created a virtual line that ran for two weeks before the release. People could sign up and create a profile, then move up the line by being an active brand advocate online. The more likes, re-tweets and comments they generated about the S4, the closer they got the front of the queue.
 
Taking the campaign offline Samsung also installed a large 50 metre long LED screen in Aotea Square, Auckland, where the public could watch the people queuing in a virtual line.  Their profile images appeared on the top of queuing bodies that sat, stood, slept and put up brollys like people would in a real queue.
 
The campaign targeted sophisticated social media users, a key audience for the Galaxy S4, and celebrated its fans. It added an element of gamification, a challenge that built excitement among fans and intrigue among everyone else.
 
The results from the two-week campaign were very impressive - 12,000 people queued for 2 weeks online and shared 74,000 product feature stories to 2.9 million newsfeeds. Showing that innovation, humour and understanding your greatest fans can lead to deep engagement that delivers great ROI.

Read more from Joss Davidge.