Folding smartphones are the present and future of the mobile category and 2021 was the year that Samsung were determined to make “foldable” mainstream.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3, with its innovative design and unrivalled productivity, was the perfect halo product to help us achieve that.

Remote working has changed the role of the mobile. Many of us now need a device that gives us the flexibility to work at home, in the office or somewhere in between, with the tools we need for work always at the ready.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 was the answer to this. Complex technology that makes productivity simple.

To champion this and drive preference, we needed to get people excited about the idea of making the complex simple.

Albert Einstein once said, “If you can't explain it to a six-year-old, you don't understand it yourself.”

Innovation is a funny thing, exciting to a knowledgeable minority, intangible to the masses.

But there is a secret that successful entrepreneurs have been using for years to gain an edge.

The power of telling a story so simply that anyone can comprehend it.

Our creative idea was to challenge a group of budding entrepreneurs to pitch their innovative business ideas to a group of children, using the technology of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 to turn complex ideas into simple, understandable concepts.

In doing so we sought to align societal impacting business innovation with category breaking innovation. And bring this to life through the lens of the authentic reaction from children, so that even the most cynical person could not fail to be excited about technological advancement.

2021 was the year of the “entrepreneurial wave” as the global situation forced us to reassess our working priorities.

Data from HMRC also shows that in March 2021 more new businesses were created than in any other month since records began in 1989.

1 in 7 adults planned to become an entrepreneur, an increase of 50%.

To harness the growth of this new way of working, and to inspire others considering on taking on the challenge, Samsung partnered with Founders Forum, a network of talented entrepreneurs redefining the way we use tech to improve society.

By collaborating with these entrepreneurs, whose stories and innovation aligned with the technological advancement of the Galaxy Z Fold 3, we sought to engage a likeminded audience of early adopters, using tech to fit a lifestyle in which work, and play intersect to drive excitement.

We worked with five different entrepreneurs from Founders Forum each with an unconventional new idea to launch.

Whilst many countries have a version of Dragon’s Den where experienced entrepreneurs evaluate the potential of new businesses, we tasked our Rising Stars with an even harder to impress panel. An audience of six year olds.

The hero content ‘unfolded’ the story of each protagonist, including the pitch with the children asking questions. We also highlighted key inspiring storytelling moments, when different elements of Galaxy Z Fold 3 innovation were used by the entrepreneur to unfold their story as simply as possible, driving home the excitement and useability of the product’s innovative features.

We distributed these videos on Facebook, Instagram and Reddit to target Life Maximisers at scale, using a mixture of in-feed, in-stream and Stories to maximise the reach, frequency, and storytelling. Complementing this with YouTube for a more engaged viewing experience.

By the campaign’s conclusion, we had reached 57% of ABC1 15-24 achieved over 60 million impressions and had 23m video views. Creative outperformed all benchmarks to be one of Samsung’s most successful social media campaign for 2021.

The hero films had resulted in a video through rate of 33% against a benchmark 14%. The cutdowns had driven an engagement rate of 23% compared to Samsung’s benchmark of 13% with 113k page views (vs. 110k target) - over delivering by 21%.

The impact of this is that by the time campaign had finished we had increased awareness by 40% to smash the 50% awareness target (original awareness in August – 10%) and doubled the original sales target within 4 weeks to become the leading local European market for sales of the device.

And the Rising Stars themselves learned the value of communicating their own ideas in a simpler way.