Finding new growth in smartphones is hard. People default to what they own or what they assume is the best. Winning young buyers is now crucial, knowing they will carry these defaults with them.

In Europe, Samsung has to work harder to win this key cohort. Gen Z default to Apple, even if Samsung offers a genuine alternative in foldable phones, in the Galaxy Z Flip.

We set out to shake them out of their comfort zone, improving preference for the Z Flip4, by zeroing on what really matters to Gen Z when they consider their next phone.

Phone brands try to hijack attention in TikTok by asking creators to show what their phone does. We showed them what they can do with the Z Flip 4 – a unique, new, authentic way to TikTok.

We collaborated with TikTok, Syco Entertainment and Universal Music Group to fund, launch and champion a ground-break global first: StemDrop.

StemDrop is a platform innovation in music collaboration that helps creators showcase their talent to the world, and create with some of the best songwriters of all time - led by Max Martin, Savan Kotecha and Ali Payami.

The programme was powered by a TikTok Branded Effect (the Samsung Galaxy StemDrop Mixer) that pioneered filter and music technology. The Mixer allowed aspiring artists of all levels to access the stems (musical components) of a new single released exclusively on TikTok, and create their own version.

We activated this partnership across eight European countries (UK, DE, FR, IT, ES, SE, NO, FI) and it also launched in the US. The campaign ran across an 8 week period, from 19th October - 18th December 2022.

TikTok stars Ari Elkins, Astrid S and Your Boy Moyo were ambassadors for StemDrop and Z Flip, hosting live daily shows on a Samsung-sponsored @StemDrop channel.

We showed this community that the Z Flip 4 is the best phone for making StemDrops, and in turn the best TikToks. Creators across Europe made their StemDrops hands-free, at any angle, using multi-window to see their lyrics while honing their performance.

In each country, PR, co-marketing and paid media activation has helped Gen Z’ers on TikTok discover, enjoy and create their own Flip-enabled Stemdrops.

StemDrop has been massive, and more TikTok’ers now see Samsung as a better alternative.

Across Europe, there’s been a massive 20.3bn #StemDrop views. 1.5m of them have created with StemDrop Mixer.

StemDrop has made waves outside of TikTok too. Coverage in mainstream news hit a cumulative 3.9bn PR views, positioning Samsung as an innovative platform partner.

2.7m TikTok’ers have gone onto visit Samsung.com to see how Z Flip phones make better TikToks, creating a 580% lift in Samsung-related searches in TikTok.

Most importantly, their perceptions have started to flip.

Top box brand consideration increased +10% ppts, and product awareness by +7% ppts. Brand love, usually hard to shift, jumped +6% ppts. More iPhone owners now think that Samsung ‘offers unique and innovative phones’ (+8%) and ‘offers something different’ (+14%).

By showing a new way to TikTok, we are shaking Gen Z out of their defaults - and into Z