Overview

As an official Worldwide Partner of the 2012 Olympics, Samsung’s sponsorship campaign focused on it being ‘Everyone’s Olympic Games’. The Hope Relay app was created as part of this, to encourage people to ‘Take Part’, raise funds for charity, and help leave a post-Olympics legacy. The app encouraged users to run, walk or cycle, and for each mile covered, Samsung donated £1 to children’s charities.

Objectives

1) To integrate Samsung technology with an innovative app that could be personalised by users

2) To encourage everyone to ‘Take Part’ in the Olympics, with a target of 50,000 app downloads and 200,000 miles covered

3) To raise money for children’s charities and leave a post-Olympics legacy

Addressing objective 1:

• The app offered users the opportunity to build their own avatar that then interacted with their Facebook page

Addressing objective 2:

• The app offered the opportunity to be part of the Olympic Torch Relay (OTR), announcing when it would visit specific towns and encouraging participants to go and see their avatars on a screen on the Samsung OTR caravan

• YouTube and Facebook video content featured David Beckham explaining the app, with help from fellow Samsung ambassadors including Zara Phillips and Victoria Pendleton

Addressing objective 3:

• To drive involvement, the app was promoted through social media, PR and above the line marketing

• The app tracked the number of miles covered by participants using built-in GPS. Samsung donated £1 for each mile completed to charity

• The advertising campaign incorporated participants’ personalised avatars and details of how much money they had raised

• The app prompted users to get support from their friends via Facebook

Outcome and evaluation

Meeting objectives 1 and 2:

• The app was downloaded by 184,523 people in the UK

• Over 15,000 social media posts were generated with press coverage reaching 85 million people

• Figures from Precise showed that Samsung had the largest social media share of voice of all Olympics sponsors, with the highest net sentiment score of +89

• In 12 weeks, over 2,000 Hope Relay events in 100 UK locations were promoted via social media and the app. Over 13 million people saw the Samsung Olympic Torch Bus featuring individual Hope Relay avatars

Meeting objective 3:

• More than £500,000 has been raised for charities including Kids Company and International Inspiration

• Samsung has left a lasting legacy - a ‘Samsung Digital Studio’ with the latest technology to help educate the children that Kids Company support