A hot SUMMER day? A fun day to PLAY! Here's how this brand used this fine season to engage with consumers

Thursday: Gorillas of Guerilla Marketing FROM THE DESK OF MILES EVERSON: I love guerrilla marketing campaigns. These fun, unique, creative, engaging, and unconventional marketing tactics are a great way to generate buzz about your brand. As someone who’s been in this industry for over 3 decades now, I strongly believe that guerrilla marketing is one of the most effective ways to raise awareness about your brand and capture your target market’s attention. Besides, these kinds of campaigns are not necessarily expensive so for me, this is a highly advisable technique to expand your brand’s reach. Keep reading to know how this South Korean electronics company made use of a hot summer day to encourage its target market to play. CEO, MBO Partners Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute

A hot SUMMER day? A fun day to PLAY! Here's how this brand used this fine season to engage with consumers What’s your ideal fun summer day? Going on a relaxing trip to the beach? Joining a summer camp? Staying at home and enjoying your air-conditioned room? For this tech company, a fun summer day is about taking content, video, and music to a whole new level… ON THE ROAD! Samsung is a South Korean electronics company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul. Its most important sources of income are mobile phones and semiconductors. To raise awareness about its new Samsung Galaxy Player in July 2012 and showcase the product’s features to consumers, the brand created… The “Summer of Play” Campaign! The campaign was a mobile marketing tour that brought summer fun and product demonstrations to different places in the US such as: New York City’s Flat Iron District Chicago’s North Avenue Beach Minneapolis’ Target Field Los Angeles’ Santa Monica Pier Boston’s City Hall Plaza Chicago’s Wrigley Field Samsung’s “Summer of Play” tagline? “Where we go, FUN follows.” A “mobile” slogan for a mobile phone’s mobile marketing tour (yes, mobile is our “KOTD”―Keyword Of The Day)! So… how did the campaign roll out? With the help of PR agency ZENO Group, Samsung’s marketing vehicle was wrapped in a “Summer of Play” car sticker and equipped with a rooftop speaker. ZENO’s staff also created a changing room inside the vehicle so brand ambassadors could easily change outfits. This was where the exciting part came in. Unsuspecting passersby were greeted with pop-up comedy routines and improvised skits that brought the Samsung Galaxy Player’s capabilities and features to life. Imagine the “Angry Birds” mobile game in real life but instead of using a slingshot to tear down structured blocks, it was tweaked into an acrobatic dance competition… … or a live-action race to showcase the thrill of playing the “Need for Speed” game on the newly-launched smartphone! Aside from that, consumers were also given an opportunity to spin the brand’s giant wheel for a chance to win a Samsung Galaxy Player. This part of the campaign got the crowd squealing, eyes wide open on where the spinning wheel’s arrow will land. Of course, who wouldn’t get hooked on that when a chance to win a new smartphone (for FREE) is at stake? We bet you’d also enjoy the thrill and fix your eyes on that spinning wheel! Consumers who were not located in the cities visited by Samsung also had a chance to win in the “Summer of Play” sweepstakes through the brand’s social media channels: Samsung “Summer of Play” Facebook App. Consumers who liked the Samsung USA Facebook page received a notification asking them to share their ideas about an ideal summer day of play. Each day for 14 days, one lucky participant was chosen to win a Galaxy Player and on the last day, a grand winner was given the chance to have his or her dream summer day brought to life! Samsung “Summer of Play” Twitter Sweepstakes. Twitter users were invited to visit SamsungSummerofPlay.com to tweet about their ideal summer day. Similar to the Facebook app, 14 lucky users were selected to win a Galaxy Player. Samsung Tumblr. Tumblr users who uploaded photos or videos of their own summer fun were given an opportunity to see their posts on Samsung’s official Tumblr page and showcase how they are celebrating summer across the US. The mobile marketing tour concluded with an appearance at the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” TV show, where Samsung’s campaign team impersonated Jimmy Kimmel while doing a Galaxy Player product demonstration. Was Samsung’s “Summer of Play” Campaign Effective? According to Travis Merrill, Samsung Electronics America’s Director of Product Marketing for Galaxy Devices: “Samsung’s ‘Summer of Play’ lets us bring the core of our new Galaxy Player―play―on the road, giving our fans the opportunity to disconnect from the hectic days of summer and just have fun with the Player’s amazing features.” Here are the results of the campaign: After 14 days of Samsung’s “Summer of Play” campaign, the brand gained more than 500,000 brand impressions Samsung was able to engage with over 50,000 people both online and offline The mobile marketing tour activated more than 25,000 product demonstrations About 2 million people watched the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” episode where the “Summer of Play” campaign was featured After the campaign, Samsung’s Galaxy lines became the flagship product for the brand By creating the “Summer of Play” campaign, Samsung drove home the message that whether it’s music, video, or gaming, the new Galaxy Player is designed to enhance the “fun for any experience.” One good way to prove that? A mobile marketing tour! This example shows that a good Guerrilla Marketing campaign brings your product’s features and benefits to life. With a highly dynamic and engaging marketing strategy, you’ll be able to leave a positive impression on your target market’s minds and give them an experience they won’t easily forget. Be unconventional with your marketing efforts every once in a while! You won’t even realize… while you’re engaging with your target market, they’ll also be helping you spread word about your brand. Hope you’ve found this week’s guerrilla marketing insight interesting and helpful. Follow us on LinkedIn. Stay tuned for next Thursday’s Gorillas of Guerilla Marketing! Do you want to learn about how one cosmetics brand deepened engagement with millennials through music and fashion? See it on next week’s Gorillas of the Guerilla Marketing!