In late-2018, Google Pixel 3 was preparing to launch into an overcrowded smartphone market. Its competitors - iPhone, Samsung and Huawei - were dominating share using sizeable and similar marketing campaigns.

Pixel’s core objective for launch was to drive consideration by an ambitious 10% among their target audience. However, fighting to be heard above the noise of their competitors presented them with a substantial challenge.

Recognizing the critical need to differentiate, Pixel seized the opportunity to bring to life their global communication platform ‘Be curious: Make every day more extraordinary’ and Curiosity Rooms, a stunning landmark destination in the heart of London, was born.

But designing a space to get the new Pixel 3 into the hands of the audience was just part of the equation. Our media campaign needed to achieve two things; get the audience into the Curiosity Rooms and get the Curiosity Rooms out to the audience.

From Google Hardware’s audience segmentation, we discovered more about this curious, experience-driven group, learning that 70% seek out cultural encounters over possessions. They love fashion and culture but when it comes to technology, they aren’t too concerned about the details and care more about how their choices make them ‘feel’.

Creating a positive emotional connection between our cultured, fashion-loving audience and Curiosity Rooms would likely elevate their desire for the Pixel 3 and ultimately lead to the all-important consideration and ideally, purchase.

Armed with this audience-led insight, we knew a mass-media approach wouldn’t work for this discerning group. Equally, if we went too niche, then reaching the +10% consideration target would be virtually impossible.

Our solution was threefold:

Run targeted awareness campaign in the lead-up to Curiosity Rooms.

Select nine diverse publishers to create events within Curiosity Rooms.

Amplify content to extend the life and reach of the Curiosity Rooms.

We knew Curiosity Rooms alone wouldn’t deliver the scale needed to reach Pixel’s consideration goal, so we developed a media strategy that would not only drive crucial footfall over five weeks but also transport the magic of the brand experience far beyond its four walls.

Our audience insights reiterated the importance of avoiding a traditional media approach. We were talking to 25-44 year old tech-savvy, change-makers; ‘bosses in the making’.They’re shaping culture, leading movements and care a lot about brands that reflect their own values.

As a result, our strategy ignored traditional ATL advertising and instead promoted the opening via fly posters, paid social and influencer posts, channels that appealed directly to our audience.

We selected nine publishers from the well-known to the relatively unknown - Vogue, Guardian, Hypebeast, GQ, Wired, i-D, PAQ, Time Out and Dojo - ensuring our content creation and amplification was as diverse as our audience.

The Curiosity Rooms became a creative platform from which brand partners, publishers, influencers and artists could share stories, advice and experiences directly with their fans.

For five weeks, these stories became a programme of talks, podcast recordings, workshops, fashion shows, gigs and special events. The nine partners provided compelling content around the ‘make every day extraordinary’ message, all designed to appeal to their own audiences:

Vogue discussing Pixie Geldolf’s extraordinary wardrobe.

Hypebeast commissioning a designer to create a collection using everyday materials.

GQ and Wired taking us behind the scenes of famous cover shoots.

ID recording a podcast about artists’ everyday inspiration.

All the action was filmed and transformed into over 200 pieces of carefully crafted content designed to appeal specifically to our audience.

This was then distributed by the publishers via their own channels, thus extending the life of the campaign from five weeks to a massive three months.

Skillful negotiations with our media partners meant our initial guaranteed delivery of 59m impressions increased to a staggering 107m by the end of the campaign.This translated into additional inventory to promote events, editorial coverage, talent access and social posts.

Equally, with tickets in high demand, we worked with each partner to upweight and downweight media impressions based on real-time ticketing data.

The core objective of the campaign was to increase consideration among the target audience by 10%. Research showed a 34% uplift in consideration with visitors to the space and a 17% uplift among those that viewed our content online. Meanwhile, our biggest partner, The Guardian, reported a 27% uplift in ‘desire for Pixel 3’.

Furthermore we saw a +14% lift in purchase intent from those exposed to Curiosity Rooms and its small retail section sold more Pixel 3 phones in five weeks than any other retailer in the country.