Winners & Shortlists

SAMSUNG SMART BIKE

TitleSAMSUNG SMART BIKE
BrandSAMSUNG ELECTRONICS ITALY
Product/ServiceSAMSUNG CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
Category A01. CORPORATE REPUTATION & COMMUNICATION
Entrant Company LEO BURNETT Milan, ITALY
Advertising Agency LEO BURNETT Milan, ITALY
Media Agency STARCOM MEDIAVEST GROUP Milan, ITALY
Production Company MAGNOLIA Milan, ITALY
Credits
Name Company Position
Mark Tutssel LEO BURNETT CO. CHICAGO USA Global Chief Creative Director
Francesco Bozza/Alessandro Antonini LEO BURNETT CO. MILAN ITALY Executive Creative Director
Christopher Jones/Cristiano Tonnarelli LEO BURNETT CO. MILAN ITALY Creative Directors
Paolo Boccardi LEO BURNETT CO. MILAN ITALY Digital Creative Director
Alice Jasmine Crippa LEO BURNETT CO. MILAN ITALY Copywriter
Gianluca Ignazzi/Andrea Muccioli/Gaia Barison LEO BURNETT CO. MILAN ITALY Art Directors
Andrea Castiglioni LEO BURNETT CO. MILAN ITALY Project Manager
Gaia Fusaro LEO BURNETT CO. MILAN ITALY Producer
Maria Teresa Genovese LEO BURNETT CO. MILAN ITALY Pr Coordinator
Niccolò Arletti LEO BURNETT CO. MILAN ITALY Managing Director
Elena Korzhenevich LEO BURNETT CO. MILAN ITALY Brand Leader
Luca Ruspini/Davide Nava LEO BURNETT CO. MILAN ITALY Account Supervisors
Federica Giacomotti LEO BURNETT CO. MILAN ITALY Account Manager
Gianluca Mori LEO BURNETT CO. MILAN ITALY Technical Director
Davide Agosta/Michele Rho Film Directors

The Campaign

Samsung is a technology brand whose marketing approach has always focused on launching products and features. We looked for a way to communicate better Samsung DNA: a brand that designs its products to “launch people”, to amplify their life’s possibilities. We looked at the current situation in Italy: the disappearance of great handcrafting excellences despite their economical power and the dramatic unemployment of younger generations. Our challenge was to make young people look at handcrafting with new eyes, reconnecting two generations and giving new fuel to “Made in Italy” by fostering a new generation of Italian artisans. We teamed up with the greatest “Made in Italy” legends, such as the bike-frame builder Giovanni Pelizzoli, providing them the right technological asset to teach their invaluable secrets in a smarter way and to talk the language of digital natives: Samsung Maestros Academy. After several lessons, a student together with Maestro Pelizzoli started to think about a new concept of safety-bike. After a technological and strategic support, they developed Samsung Smart-Bike, the first safe-bicycle that protects the rider with its built-in smart-components, automatically activated through a Samsung smartphone and an app. A responsive “safety-environment” that detects ambient-conditions and protects the driver in real-time, already featured on the most influential blogs and magazines all over the world. The Smart-Bike itself was designed through Samsung smart-devices and a co-creation online process, raising awareness on Samsung products features and on its role in supporting people’s talent. Smart-bike was successfully showcased during the Milan Design Week event.

The Brief

We wanted to build an opportunity for Samsung to express its core brand-values in an engaging, newsworthy way. Samsung Smart-Bike target are young digital-skilled individuals who are looking for a successful life, and who can be motivated to innovate Italian heritage thanks to their technological skills. We discovered from Italian Institute of Statistics that “bike-frame making” as an endangered profession, together with a great passion for fixed-bikes amongst the youngest and two further problems: bicycles being the most “unsafe” vehicles in Italy with the highest mortality-index and young people refusing to use the appropriate safety-equipment, considering it uncomfortable to use.

Results

Samsung Smart Bike ended up on such an exciting conversation on blogs and social media that Discovery-Italia decided to feature the building process in one of the 12-episodes of the Maestros Academy TV-series, generating even more buzz. With more than 6 million TV-viewers, 7 million FB and Twitter-users reached and 60 million media-impressions -in Italy alone- Smart-bike initiative became a big topic even in major universities, including “Bocconi”, “Cattolica”, IED and even NY Fashion Institute of Technology. The Maestros Academy’ student presented her creation during the Milan Design Week event with the endorsement of EXPO2015 representative for Urban Mobility, famous journalists and design community. Her idea has been taken under consideration for applications according to EXPO scenarios, after being recognized as a big step-forward for urban-safety and sustainability. On top, it inspired many young talents to change their mind about handcrafting, starting to find ways to innovate Italian heritage.

Execution

For this reason we teamed up with Maestro Pelizzoli, publishing on Samsung Maestros Academy full-detailed lessons and downloadable educational tools, making them fully engaging for a young audience. We stimulated social buzz and invited young talents to live-interact with the Maestro through the platform. Among all the creative interactions, we supported the most innovative one, focused on safety, helping a student express her full potential and to live a success-story. We provided the needed strategic, and technological support to this creative couple, documenting all the process and spreading their story. Samsung helped their idea going even further by optimising the needed mobile features. Then, we stimulated the conversation about the final outcome, offering to all the initiative the best occasions of world-wide exposure, such as the Milano Design Week event or particular sections of influent blogs and magazines. The whole process took from October 7th till April11st.

The Situation

Italy is living a huge paradox: despite the unemployment crisis, thousands of positions in handcrafting remain vacant. Young Italians are not fascinated by ancient crafts anymore. That’s how the tradition of “Made in Italy” started to quickly fade away. Young Italians would need instead to experience handcrafting with new eyes and to see concrete evidence that is possible and rewarding to innovate ancient crafts through tecnology. That’s why we partnered with a true “legend” of Made in Italy and we developed a bike that embodies the greatest handcrafting tradition and a new innovative vision.

The Strategy

The core strategy was to use technology to reconnect two generations, preserving the future of “Made in Italy” and fostering a new generation of Italian artisans. In order to motivate young people to participate, we needed to build a story of global success featuring a student, a Maestro and their engaging co-creation process. A concrete evidence of the power of two generations, finally together thanks to technology. In this perspective technology becomes not only a physical enhancer, but also a “common language” that allows these two generations find new points of contact. This means generating a meaningful and outstanding role for Samsung products, raising awareness on exclusive product-features as well as on main brand values, never introducing them through a flat product-placement.