Title	PEAR FOR AN APPLE
Brand	SAMSUNG
Product/Service	MOBILE SOLUTIONS
Category	A07. Use of Events and Stunts
Advertising Agency	CONTENT COWBOYS Antwerp, BELGIUM
Media Agency	SPACE Brussels, BELGIUM
Entrant Company	SPACE Brussels, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Gauthier De Jonghe	Space	Strategic/Creative Manager
Loubna Khalladi	Space	Digital Connection Planner

Brief Explanation

Next to the “classical” brand, communication and media strategies, Samsung wanted to apply an agile marketing communication to tackle Apple at some very specific moments and have some “social talks” around it. The Apple annual Keynote, with probably the announcement of the new iPhone 6 and Apple Watch, was one of these moments. The challenge was to localize a relevant communication. The idea came from the news in Belgium : due to the Russian boycott, the pear farmers were staying with very high unsold volumes. This information was a hot topic in the news at the time.

Results and Effectiveness

Main online Results : - Impressions: 2.8 million - Reach: 2 million people - Trending for 48H Main PR Results : - National o Number of articles: 25 o AVE: € 44.458,42 o PR: € 111.146,05 - International o Number of articles: 12 The presence of the brand in the news headlines of most of generalist newssites that day, only on an earned media value basis, is huge: 9,2:1 vs paid media.

Creative Execution

First media idea is about the target group: tech savvy’s, geeks and Apple fans: • Apple fans • Apple conversations Second killing idea was to focus on social networks: due also to budget constraints, the decision was to limit ourselves to Twitter (obviously): • promoted tweet format • Live period (Tweet 1 - Wednesday before 7 pm // Tweet 2 - Wednesday after 7 pm) • The agency responsible for the tweet production & publishing (recommended to use an image with the pear #tag)

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Samsung is respectively n° 1 in the smartphones category (37% MS) and in leading position in tablets (31% MS) in 2014. Brand perception is positive as well : different, relevant, qualitative,… But for brand status, brand fans, ambassadors, customers ready to pay more for, their number 1 position is threatened by the big Apple. Apple succeeds, with no paid media, to generate lots of talks around their brands and products. They also keep a bulk of die-hard fans. Belgian pear farmers had a problem with high unsold volumes. This information was a hot topic in the news at that time.