Grandmothers and Goths. Mall rats and mall walkers. The mall used to bring people together like no place else. Especially during the holiday season. Today that’s changed. Malls across America are closing at a rapid rate, leaving empty relics behind.

So, this holiday season, instead of selling products at a mall, Samsung partnered with YouTube sensation Casey Neistat and 17 other YouTube creators to bring a dead one back to life - transforming an abandoned mall into a winter wonderland. Once transformed, we invited the next generation of creators (kids from the Greater Milwaukee Boys and Girls Club) to experience the Winter Wonderland for themselves. Even better, we equipped each child with the Samsung gear to help Casey create this year’s Samsung Holiday Video. Ultimately transforming much more than a mall this holiday season.

Formerly a place of joy (and jobs) over the holiday season, the Northridge Mall was abandoned and left in disrepair – a million square foot symbol of decline in Milwaukee. Once we found our location, we only had two weeks to fully transform it from a dead mall to a winter wonderland. The shared vision for the transformation was one-part Whoville and one-part Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. We brought this vision to life through larger than life spectacles (an escalator-turned-snowboard-ramp complete with professional snowboarders) and small details (a real train track with conductor, oversized edible gingerbread houses and an ice skating rink). Then, Casey Neistat and 17 other YouTubers revealed the Winter Wonderland to a group of local kids who, with the the Galaxy Note8, used the transformed space as their canvas to create Samsung’s next holiday film.

Without spending a dollar in media, the film was viewed by nearly 7million people on YouTube, with 64% falling within our millennial target for the Samsung mobile brand.

At a time of year when top of mind awareness and brand sentiment can heavily influence purchasing behavioiur the campaign and surrounding PR delivered over 100MM social impressions and 30MM media impressions, catching the attention of the national and international press online. Furthermore, local and national news outlets came to visit the spectacle, broadcasting live from the mall.

In addition to impressive impressions, we saw a 62% uplift in brand sentiment online as a result of the campaign (against daily, weekly and monthly bases).