In 2008 Samsung Canada introduced their iconic product of the year, the Samsung INSTINCT. This touch screen smartphone was targeted at young professionals aged 24-35. With an approaching launch, Samsung challenged Fjord with the task of preparing a teaser campaign.

The three key objectives of the teaser campaign were to:

1. Create buzz in the market / get people talking
2. Create a persona for the product
3. Demonstrate the key features and benefits of owning a Samsung INSTINCT

With a focus on clearly differentiating itself from the competition, Fjord used the following positioning statement:

Owning the Samsung INSTINCT touch screen smartphone, equipped with these features and innovative form factor, would open the world to opportunities that otherwise would not exist with a standard mobile.

This was now the new generation of mobile technology. Not an upgrade, but rather a revolution.

Our target market are tech-savvy early adopters who scour the Internet researching new product releases using:

• Mobile industry blogs
• Product features/YouTube demos
• New marketing campaigns/PR for product releases
• Google searches

Strategically we felt that the message delivery would need to be done in an innovative and industry-leading manner. We wanted to ensure that the target would be able to fully experience what it would be like to own a Samsung INSTINCT. With the INSTINCT being positioned as the new generation of mobile technology – we needed to follow suit in how our target received the message.

Two weeks prior to briefing this project, YouTube introduced annotations to their video upload functionality. This addition allows video uploaders to imbed clickable links inside their videos. Fjord/Cossette recognized this new addition from the onset and felt that the Samsung INSTINCT campaign would provide a perfect marriage with the new technology. It fit the campaign objectives, brand positioning and target insight perfectly. Fjord/Cossette was the first agency in the world to market a product using this technology. This in itself would generate a lot of BUZZ.

To ensure the campaign would pique interest and provoke conversation, we decided to create an unbranded treatment where the only attachment to the brand was the name of the Video (Follow Your INSTINCT), the naming of the user account (SamsungCanadaFilms) and of course the product itself.

The premise of the story is that “Urban Professional Guy” wakes up from a night of partying not knowing where he is. He gathers himself together and gets his day going using the Samsung INSTINCT. Throughout the story he is presented with options of what to do next, which is where the interactivity comes into play as users select his path. At the end of the day if he "Follows his INSTINCT” throughout, he ends up in the ideal situation.

Along with the video upload, the series was tagged using relevant product features that called up supporting videos of random ‘underground’ product demos that were leaked through the US. These videos featured individuals playing with the INSTINCT in a ‘product review’ viral manner. This provided ideal supporting content that further connected the campaign to the product’s key features.

As of October 1st, there were over 415,000 total video views (the entire webisode includes 9 videos at approximately 1 minute/video – this equates to approximately 7,000 hours of viewing time). The comments submitted by YouTube users have been over 90% positive. With the limited production budget (and zero media budget), it is doubtful that this wide reach could have been achieved any other way.

Within the first two days of launch the campaign had hundreds of Blog entries and a write-up in the Globe & Mail. It received multiple industry publication mentions in publications like Strategy and Marketing Magazine. The international coverage of the campaign includes several website and blog mentions. Marketing/advertising blogs and mobile blogs were identified as important buzz generators, since they are accessed regularly by Samsung’s target market to research new products.