Samsung S8 Creates Magic With SA’s Youth Influencers

In Trends

Samsung’s unbox your phone campaign recently culminated in the launch of its Samsung S8, with Infinity Display, user recognition and other futuristic features. The launch generated a reach of more than 1,7m users, engagement and resonance that generated almost 4,000 direct engagements, and ultimately drove a record number of unit sales in less than 48 hours. What was the cause of the traction you may wonder? Youth influencers of course. Let’s take a look at how Samsung and other brands are harnessing influencers to connect with the millennial market and reach staggering engagement figures.

1. A Recipe For Attraction

Influencer marketing has rocketed up in terms of marketers’ consideration in the past 12-24 months, so much so, that it’s no longer the buzz word and more of a must-have feature on any campaign budget.

The challenge of the right influencer and influencer mix remains. It’s not good enough to just have influencers who have a large following or for these influencers to just share the image and text the client has provided.

What we see now is a more educated follower base, who know and understand the difference between a hard sell and a more genuine level of engagement. This has led to influencers having to be more real with their followers, but also more real with brands and collaborating to create authentic content. Content that is far removed from the hard sell.

This brings us to Samsung’s selection, of six youthful, energetic and creative influencers for its launch campaign. All of them were well versed in content creation, understood what their audience likes and dislikes, and were up for the experience in order to give an honest account of the new S8 smartphone.

2. Audiences Live On Content

Being asked, by a brand, to share an experience is one thing, but capturing the experience, in your own words and style is another.

Samsung benefitted from influencers’ content and gave them the freedom to generate their own material. This coupled with a strong, coherent brief, allowing for content creation, provided that perfect mix for Samsung during their launch weekend.

With the influencers, effectively unboxed from client driven content, they told a story of their experience, bringing to life the phone, some features and the overall launch. Not only did this resonate with their immediate following, but also tapped into the youth’s need for authentic content.

3. Numbers Don’t Lie

What do you get when you get the mix of influencers and content spot on? Well, in less than 48hours Samsung generated both an incredible amount of reach (1,7m direct accounts), as well as direct engagement (up to 4,000 engagements). Powerful stuff with the use of these 6 influencers, and across the three key social platforms of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Even more powerful were the sales generated from the weekend’s launch. Samsung has tapped into both the general public’s and youth’s hunger for the latest smartphone tech to sell thousands of units before the end of the week.

Get Started!

Influencer marketing is here to stay for quite some time and South Africa has only scraped the surface of its potential. If you believe in paying attention to the right blend of influencers for your campaign, and would like to work with influencers that are in tune with their youth audiences, chat to the Student Village crew on 011 885 3918 or email [email protected].