Samsung RWC Wins Gold & Silver in the MMA UK & EMEA Smarties Awards

There’s no doubt that mobile devices play a huge role in the way we consume sports. Brands are always finding unique ways to leverage sporting events to connect and engage with their target audience. One such brand that truly capitalized on the power of mobile was Samsung who successfully sealed their association with the Rugby World Cup through this campaign.

The success of the campaign was further cemented when it was recently awarded a Gold and a Silver in the in the ‘Mobile Video’ and ‘Innovation’ categories respectively in the prestigious Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) UK and EMEA Smarties™Awards

A Sneak Peek into the Campaign

During the Rugby World Cup in the UK, with patriotism running ripe, Samsung found an opportune moment to evangelize their partnership with the England Rugby and stand out as a proud sponsor of the host nation team. Through this partnership, Samsung was looking to drive brand affinity, and in the long term brand love. The primary objective was to drive views of the ‘The Samsung School of Rugby video’, a series of football lessons presented in a light-hearted manner, amongst the “Big Eventers”.

Why Mobile?

Samsung hypothesized that mobile usage spikes during sports games because viewers tend to dip in and out of action. This meant that Big Eventers were likely to view their mobile devices during games. In addition, Samsung had fantastic video content and wanted to present this content through an innovative and compelling way to wow their target audience.

Mobile was the perfect medium to achieve these goals. Leveraging the gyroscope in a mobile device, a 360 degree video ad creative was designed to ensure that audiences could engage with Samsung’s content in an all new way.

Reaching the Right Audience with the Right Message

Samsung partnered with InMobi to build a bespoke audience of Big Eventers, using unique first party data. First, users who frequently use sports apps were identified. Location data signals were then leveraged to identify users who frequently attend large-scale sporting venues and who also attend big national sporting events. Users who were marked by both data types were classified as Big Eventers.

A best-in-class technology was used to create an immersive 360 degree ad creative featuring a rugby game. With the goal to deliver an engaging experience for the user, a gyroscope to adjust the video’s viewpoint was used. Users who viewed the video could rotate their devices and view the game from different angles as the video played, giving a 360 degree experience to users . Once the video ended, users could click to view more videos or share the video on Twitter.

This innovative ad format encouraged users to truly engage with the “The Samsung School of Rugby Video Series” and learn about the sport in a refreshing fashion.

Tremendous business impacts for Samsung

More than 1 million Big Eventers were exposed to Samsung’s partnership with the England Rugby team- a total reach of 1,106,207 unique users. 2.61% of users exposed to the ad clicked to view and engaged with the video, exceeding the benchmark CTV rate of 2%. 4% users shared the video on Twitter, which once again smashed the average 1.5% share rate.

TNS tracking showed the campaign successfully increased Samsung’s awareness as one of the top 3 brands associated with Rugby. In addition, the brand love scores climbed steadily over the tournament and hit their highest point ever.