Samsung - Connected Living
Samsung: Design School Creative
Samsung – the South Korean multinational conglomerate, selected 11 students from Europe’s top Design Schools to work with their Strategy and Marketing Team. The project was to engage the Gen-Z audience through Samsung products with a creative and innovative approach, through Samsung’s social media channels.
The purpose of the project was to change Gen-Z’s brand perception of Samsung by showcasing how Samsung products and features can benefit their day-to-day lives, eventually improving Gen-Z’s love for the brand by connecting with their passion points in a fun and friendly way.
Duration
3 Months
Team
11 Students – into 3 groups of 4 students with diverse backgrounds
Role
As a part of this project my role was to serve as a researcher and to ideate and develop creative concepts and content for Samsung’s social media channels.
The Brief
- Create content and outputs showcasing the Smart Homestyle linking connectivity with people’s passion.
- To show the Gen-Z audience that a Smart Home can have style.
- To convey that connectivity can result in beauty and it can allow one to focus on other important things.
Research
The key to creating best social first content is to have a deep understanding of our audience that allows us to the creative process and trends to benefit the brand in a way that is authentic and relevant. Hence we explored how brands like Samsung can tap into the Gen-Z trends and behaviour.
Approximately 2 billion 16-24 year olds worldwide make up to 32% of the worlds population. They are the first generation that have no memory of life before mobile phones
Social Media
- 50% of Gen-Z stay connected for up to 10.6 hours a day consuming content across all their devices.
- Accouding to a recent study by Adobe, the contribution of Gen-Z users on TikTok is 60%, Instagram is 73% and Youtube is 62%.
Gen-Z Passion Points
Creativity: Self Expression
They prize their own creativity. Rather than waiting to be entertained, they would make the entertainment themselves, creating lots of own content on platforms like Youtube and TikTok.
Culture: Gaming
84% of males and 79% of females participate in gaming on their devices and consoles. Cross-platform functionality is more important than ever. Gen-Z are expecting to play the same titles wherever they are and on which ever device they are using.
Community: Mental Health
They consider mental health as one of the most important health and wellness concerns. The topic of mental health is progressively becoming a less taboo topic, especially when they share their feelings and stories in social media.
Conscientiousness: Ethical Living
They self-identify as future inheritors of the planet and are deeply concerned for its welfare. Most of them look for products that are cruelty-free and environment friendly
How are Gen-Z purchasing?
They want to compare different products and see a real story behind those products and the brand itself. They think more analytically before investing.
Shops across a range of platforms, with 70% purchasing from social media based on comments, shares, likes and friend recommendations.
Impulsive shoppers, mostly stating they make purchases just because they randomly saw an item they liked.
The path to purchase has been affected and sped up by social media and the changing world, creating more touchpoints with the consumer than ever.
What they want from brands?
- Gen-Z dont want to be sold to. They understand why brands engage in that way, but they expect more than that. They want to be spoken to – not at.
- They look for an authentic and trustworthy tone of voice.
- Influencer recommendations drive almost double the purchases.
SmartThings: Connected Living
Samsung’s SmartThings provides connection between several devices at home, facilitating smart home automation. With an ever-expanding ecosystem, including Samsung products, SmartThings allows users to connect and bring more devices together than ever before, maximising the value of their smart experience.
Final Social Media Content
We came up with 4 different final concepts, each representing a SmartThings feature. The final content was released on Samsung’s global social media channels, Instagram and TikTok. “Finding your true Bud” and “Lockdown Love” were released on 14th February 2021, featuring 2021 Valentines Day. Whereas, “Mirroring Moments” and “Tap Tap Tap” were released on 17th February and 19th February 2021 respectively.
Mirroring Moments
SmartThings Feature: Smart View
We wanted to show accidental screen mirroring that causes awkward moments, with humour. Using the power of humour to demonstrate a Gen-Z trait of living at home with parents, explaining the product function.
A Dad (boomer) props his phone up to learn the latest dance routine, and he accidently turns on ‘Smart View’. While his Gen Z daughter is watching him through the TV and gets the full show. She then, laughingly, teaches him the dance.
Tap Tap Tap
SmartThings Feature: Tap View
Using Tik Tok style transitions we’ll convey a ‘tap tap tap’ motion of using your connected devices. Graphic motion such as vibration and a change of background colour will give it a rhythmic touch as the video pulses with connectivity.
Featuring a Gen-Z Dancer and using close edits she appears to pass between her palette device and her Sero TV with just a tap, highlighting the tapping function that forms an instant connection. The video seamlessly loops to the start of scene one.
Finding Your True Bud
SmartThings Feature: SmartThings Find
This video was featured for 2021 Valentines Day. A video of a love story between two Samsung Ear Buds. This love story for the ages features the perfect pair, but one Bud is lost without its Bud-love. It searches in vain for its partner, travelling around the house, looking in all the spots where a person usually loose things, until SmartThings Find saves the day and helps the Buds to be reunited. As the SmartThings ‘Find’ button is pressed, ribbons comes out and surrounds the hand and phone forming a heart. The playfully unrealistic content, humorously relates to a person loosing their ear buds often.
Lockdown Love
SmartThings Feature: ‘Scenes’ setting on TV
This video was featured for 2021 Valentines Day. We want to create a short video that shows how SmartThings can help you cover up your tracks and set the mood, in a fast and efficient way.
Everyone were lockdown and it was a virtual date night, where one of the attendees has completely forgotten. Luckily her SmartThings ‘Scenes’ function was there to save her relationship.
