Title	FEEL THE SOUND
Brand	SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS NORDIC
Product/Service	SAMSUNG SOUNDBAR/SUBWOOFER
Category	I04. Social Behaviour & Cultural Insight
Entrant	WENDERFALCK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation	WENDERFALCK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Media Placement	WENDERFALCK Stockholm, SWEDEN
PR	WENDERFALCK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production	CHIMNEY Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production 2	LITKA Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Linn Petrén	Wenderfalck	Project Manager
Adam Radi	Wenderfalck	Art Director
Oskar Skott	Wenderfalck	Creative
Julia Högberg	Wenderfalck	Copywriter
Frida Lind	Wenderfalck	PR Creative
Petter Rudwall	Wenderfalck	Creative Director
Sara Wikberg	Wenderfalck	Media Specialist:
Nathalie Folkeryd	Wenderfalck	PR Consultant

Background

Samsung exists to create human-centered innovation that enables great experiences for all. One of their core ambitions is to help people break barriers. The brief was to strengthen Samsung as a credible actor within sound innovation, and create inclusion among a cultural group that are often left out of sonic experiences. At the same time, Samsung wanted to enhance their line of subwoofers that have a remarkable ability to render low frequency sound. Traditionally Samsung communicates their sound products with a focus on sound quality, most successfully towards tech media. But our target was to get a 10 million earned media reach focused on high culture, who rarely report about commercial news. We had to find a way to reach out with the usp:s of Samsung's subwoofers, and at the same time show the value of Samsung's innovations, while also proving how they actually enable people to break barriers.

Describe the strategy

To reach those who don’t necessarily care about technical details, but rather for great sound, and to create news value that would generate coverage in target media, we chose to skip the technical details, and frog leap right into the sound experience, or rather, the lack of it. Sound is what makes horror movies scary. But for 70 million deaf people in the world, the sound is absent, and so is the chance to fully experience horror movies. To ensure relevance and quality our solution was developed in collaboration with a reference group of deaf people. By telling their story, we delivered a message about the potential of really good sound. Aiming to create a technique that would be available to all who cares about an inclusive film industry, we teamed up with a reputed sound designer. To truly break barriers, the solution needed to be available to all.

Describe the execution

To include the Deaf in the magic world of cinema, we created a never-before-seen, or rather, never-before-heard tangible sound design, together with the sound designer behind the internationally award winning horror movie ”Let the right one in”, Per Sundström. Per used the abilities of Samsung's subwoofers as a springboard to create a tangible movie soundtrack, consisting of low frequency bass sounds that can be felt in the body, and hence experienced by people who can’t hear. To make the soundtrack available to all, we released it for free streaming on one of the largest platforms in the Nordics, SF Anytime. We also created a campaign site where we connected the new sound design to Samsung’s subwoofers, and highlighted the reactions from our reference groups. A campaign movie was used to promote the initiative. The new sound design was pitched towards key media within culture, tech and the deaf community.

List the results

The tangible soundtrack generated great attention from the largest media houses in Sweden, as well as international media, resulting in an earned reach of over 20 million people, surpassing our goals with 100%. The majority of the publications appearing in dailies, movie magazines and high-culture press. The initiative received very positive feedback from the Deaf’s National Federation as well as our reference group, many commenting on how the soundtrack enabled a greater movie experience. By turning one of the largest streaming platforms into a unique media channel for the campaign, we met the target group where they already were, giving them an entire new brand experience simply by adding a new sound option for a horror classic people already searched for. The project was also a statement towards the film industry. Since Samsung has elaborated this technology, there's no longer any excuse excluding deaf from the full experience of movies.

Please tell us about the social behaviour and / or cultural insights that inspired your campaign

To increase credibility, we wanted to innovate a solution for real people’s real problems and highlight the possibilities that Samsungs audio technology offers in terms of inclusion. Sound is a vital part of experiencing film. When it comes to horror, it’s crucial for building tension. But for 70 million people in the world, who are deaf, the sound is absent, and so is the chance to fully experience movies. The tangible sound design was made for a Swedish horror movie classic. The movie with the adapted sound design was released on Halloween – the Christmas eve of horror movies and also the tenth anniversary of the awarded movie, giving it a well deserved revival. Our work can easily be applied to other movies, creating possibilities for a new inclusive practice in the film industry. Culture should be open to everyone, and Samsung technology can break some of the barriers.