"George Enescu" festival is one of Europe's biggest classical music festivals. Tickets are super expensive making the festival very exclusive and inaccessible to vast majority of Romanians.

As the technology partner of the event, Samsung had to make an innovation statement in quite a contrasting set-up to new technology: a classical music event, carrying an old etiquette for years.

Thus, Samsung took a concrete challenge at Enescu festival: live by its brand promise – ‘Do what you can’t’ and prove innovation can break the preconceived conventions of experiencing classical music: from who can enjoy it, to how it can be enjoyed.

By answering people’s need of innovation to be less about tech specs and more about real meaning, Samsung decided to break the boundaries of an elite partnership and give all Romanians the chance to experience the most exclusive music festival at their fingertips, with the help of AR tech.

The idea was inspired by the fact that the famous Romanian composer George Enescu is featured on the 5 RON banknote. So we came up with a beautifully simple solution - we turned every 5 RON banknote (worth approx 1 EUR) into a virtual concert "ticket". Using the free Samsung dARe app, any Romanian could simply download the app, scan the portrait of George Enescu on the banknote and experience the festival in real time, from wherever they were, directly on their smartphones and without paying a dime.

Moreover, in order to truly stick to the “free access for all” promise, scanning worked on all mobile phones, Android and iOS, not only Samsung ones.

Samsung needed to make an innovation statement in the context of George Enescu Festival, the most exclusive classical music event in Romania, in a situation when Romanians increasingly expect innovation to be substantiated by a greater purpose and to go beyond unnecessary tech specs.

Building on its brand positioning „Do Want You Can’t” Samsung used technology to give all Romanians the chance to experience an elite music festival at their fingertips.

This coincided with the consumer insight how technology has radically changed music consumption, from traditional concerts or radio / vinyl at home to online streaming with maximum flexibility - Romanians spend 2,5+ hours / day streaming music

The brand message was simple - Samsung truly helps people to do what they can’t. This time, by allowing them to see a sold-out, exclusive music festival on a banknote, using only their mobile phones and a 5 RON bill.

The 5 lei banknote was turned into an AR marker that allowed any Romanian to experience the festival in real time, from wherever they were, directly on their smartphones

While the mobile experience of attending George Enescu through AR was the epicenter of the campaign, it was taken further during the festival through layered targeting on different channels, following a mix of demographics and interests. The main was mainly on:

Online Display: firstly, people were reached on mobile through contextual targeting, demographically and based on their interests (adjacent to classical music)

Social Media: for reaching as many communities as possible, the message was taken further on both Samsung’s own channels and by its brand ambassadors.

Digital display: to bring the idea in people’s offline life, OOH was used to create awareness on the Initiative.

With 80 million banknote "tickets" circulating the country, Samsung democratised the festival for everyone in Romania and the festival "attendance" grew exponentially.

The dARe app by Samsung climbed to #1 spot among Romanian apps in App Store and Google Play with downloads increase of 282%.

In the first 72 hours, the number of Banknote Concerts viewers became three times bigger than the live festival’s attendance.

The campaign generated 700% earned media return and was picked by mainstream media, reaching 14 million Romanians in total.

Most importantly, Samsung achieved higher brand association than all other partnering brands combined (Audi, Mastercard, Raiffeisen bank). Brand distinctiveness saw a stunning +9pp increase, reversing a previous decline of -3pp.