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.

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.

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.

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.