SAMSUNG FASTFRAME

Short List
TitleSAMSUNG FASTFRAME
BrandSAMSUNG
Product/ServiceSAMSUNG FASTFRAME
Category A01. Innovative Technology
Entrant CHEIL BENELUX Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation CHEIL BENELUX Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Media Placement STARCOM Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
PR HVDM Den Haag, THE NETHERLANDS
Production MARIO PIEPENBRINK Alkmaar, THE NETHERLANDS
Production 2 PIRKE PRODUCTIONS Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Additional Company DE GROT Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Additional Company 2 ONESIZE Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Additional Company 3 PARK STUDIO Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Additional Company 4 PETER HAMELINCK Monnickendam, THE NETHERLANDS
Additional Company 5 JAY SUNSMITH Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Credits
Name Company Position
Thijs de Boer Cheil Benelux Executive Creative Director
Pepijn Spanjerberg Cheil Benelux Art Director
Norman Groenewegen Cheil Benelux Copywriter
Budi Gonzalez de Chaves Cheil Benelux Managing Director
Matthijs van Schie Cheil Benelux Account Management
Marie Vermeulen Cheil Benelux Project management
Mario Piepenbrink Independent Technical Director
Pirke Bergsma Pirke Productions RTV producer
Thijs de Boer Cheil Benelux Film Director
Bart Breugem Cheil Benelux Director of Photography
Bart Breugem Cheil Benelux Editor
Lamine Ndiaye Cheil Benelux Editor
Lamine Ndiaye Cheil Benelux Post Production
Peter Hamelinck Independent Photography
Wouter Veersema Park Studio Music & Sound
Twan van Steenhoven Independent Music & Sound
Jay Sunsmith Independent Logo design
Danny Bakker Cheil Benelux Design app
Bernard Westerdijk Cheil Benelux UX/UI design
Gerben van Walt Meijer Samsung Electronics Benelux Head of Marketing IMD
Laura Geuze Samsung Electronics Benelux Marketing Communication Manager
Femke Koenen Samsung Electronics Benelux Influencer Marketing Manager

Why is this work relevant for Innovation?

The Samsung Fastframe is a unique way to claim sponsorship of two Olympians. For an innovative tech brand saying ‘do what you can’t’, we didn’t choose to just do an advertising campaign made by a proud sponsor, we started a creative partnership in which we created a relevant technological innovation that solved a real barrier within the sport. For the first time ever this innovation unlocked the secret of the perfect start, the most essential part of the sport. This is innovation helping two Olympians in their training process towards the Games. Helping the BMX sport in general further.

Background

Samsung has been the World Wide Olympic Partner of the Olympic Games since 1998. For the Summer Games in Tokyo, Samsung Electronics Benelux sponsored BMX riders Niek Kimmann and Judy Baauw. The brief was to develop a strategy and creative idea for a sponsorship campaign around the Games that connects seamlessly with the Samsung brand mantra: ‘Do what you can’t’. Concrete objective is: Achieve a top-3 position as a named sponsor of the Olympic Games in the Netherlands. Regulations at the Olympic Games are very strict, which means you can’t contribute during competitive racing. So we had to find a way to make to innovate and contribute in the way the athletes trained.

Describe the idea

As sponsor of BMX athletes you can hope for Olympic success. But as tech brand saying ‘do what you can’t’, why don’t you help them to be successful? BMX is all about the perfect start, where 70% of the races are won. This start consists of three elements: reaction speed, power and the angle at which the bike is pulled up. The ideal combination of these 3 factors is the biggest mystery in BMX. Until Samsung FastFrame. A customised BMX innovation with built-in technology and app that measures the factors in real time. The data, directly transferred to the coaches’ smartphones, unlocked this ideal combination of the perfect start. This way we created true value for the athletes (a daily training tool), resulting in the first Dutch Olympic BMX gold medal ever. And an awareness explosion for Samsung being a real contributing sponsor. A bold statement, fitting Samsung's brand promise.

What were the key dates in the development process?

3 October 2019 – Finding the big barrier in BMX. First meet-up with the national BMX team coaches and Olympic athletes. As it turns out, BMX is all about the perfect start. But what makes the perfect start? It’s a combination of reaction speed, raw power and the control of the bike. But what's the ultimate combination of these factors is a mystery. From this insight the idea for FastFrame was born. 11 November 2019 — Start the pre-production cycle. Get functional design nailed down for all elements, software, firmware and hardware. The aim is to create a solution that will be invisible for the athlete while they are using it and analysing the results in realtime after finishing their run. Testing all different types of technologies to quickly discard the ones that won’t work as desired to come to the final technology selection to proceed to the production stage. Onsite environmental research in Papendal to find the best way to integrate into a training workflow. 25 November 2019 — Start developing design to talk to the different types sensors measuring the performance and angular data from the bike. Synchronising all these different data streams in to an atomic clock accurate single data stream. Analysis is done on the fly per athlete while the recording is happening on the on-premise server. 14 February 2020 — First integration on the BMX bike with a specially 3D designed enclosure to house all the electronics. With the aim of easy access for attaching and removal and being out of the way to the athlete while performing. While also placed inside the part of the frame that the added weight wouldn’t upset the intricate balance of the bike during a training session. 18 February 2020 — Initial technical integration test for timing systems and data capture on the BMX track at Papendal. This was in conjunction with the technical staff from NOC*NSF to ensure valid scientific data was captured so all analysis done with our FastFrame would be highly accurate. March - April 2020 — Papendal was closed due to the pandemic rules. Software development continued based on the initial integration tests, but onsite testing wasn’t possible at the time. November 2019 – May 2020 Testing and improving various test bikes. March 2020 - IOC postponed Games to 2021 Start training with FastFrame. Till Games in summer 2021. May 2020 — With access to Papendal again after relaxation of pandemic rules for pro-athletes we started with a batch of different tests each week. Quickly get feedback and work through all assumptions made during the lack of access to the athletes during the previous period. These included software and hardware tweaks and redesigns of the enclosure as BMX jumping impact is hard on equipment. June 2020 — Training starts with the FastFrame. July - September 2020 — Multiple updates to design of the geometry of cranks for enhanced accuracy under extreme loads of the BMX athletes. The athletes produce extraordinary amount of torque during the first 3 seconds of their run and we wanted all the minute details we could get, changing the design of the cranks made sure we could capture it all for each crank individually a 100 times per second. July 2020 till 2021 Games — Continuous support and minor updates to the FastFrame based on feedback from coaches, athletes and technical staff NOC*NSF. June 23 2021 – PR kick off. FastFrame presented to the entire Dutch media. Beginning July 2021 – Campaign follow up with TV commercial, Online video, TikTok native videos, Digital OOH, Retail, Metro AdTrack, Olympic sales promotions, digital/social backstory content and catch-up sets for after the finals July 30, 2021 – Olympic Gold for Niek Kimmann.

Describe the innovation / technology

With the brains to tucked away inside the confines of bike-frame we created a central hub that can communicate with each individual sensor on the bike. The cranks at 100Hz, using a modified version of ANT+ and the 9-DOF IMU to capture the angle of the bike in 3D space. The data is synchronized and merged in real-time with the track’s timing and start-gate trigger system. Analysis creates a precise time mapped performance of the run. Tracking the reaction time to the drop of the start-gate. Mapping the torque output of each leg and amount of lift of the bike to the position on the hill. Each run can be compared to best ever, best of today or a set target, all from within the same app No waiting for insights for the coach and athlete, they can review it directly after the run without changing the way they train.

Describe the expectations / outcome

The athletes trained with the BMX bike for months. Just before the Olympics, when the buzz about innovations in sports was at its peak, we brought it to the press. In no time The Netherlands knew about Samsung partnering with the Olympic athletes by creating a breakthrough innovation. Apart from PR and marketing kpi’s the innovation (70+ million impressions, Named No 1 sponsor by Dutch public, 12.9 million OTS) turned out to be a huge success for the coaches and athletes. The athletes emphasized the fact that they really benefited from the innovation. For example Kimmann stated he learned from Samsung FastFrame - other than he expected – that if he started with less power but more emphasis on the ideal angle at which he pulled the bike up, his start was faster. We are currently looking after the possibilities to make the innovation available for the entire Dutch BMX-team.