As sponsors of the Australian Olympic team, Samsung wanted to replace the absence of crowd motivation in Tokyo with another form of support.

Working with Olympians, we gave them an edge over competitors by leveraging something used by athletes across the globe. Music. We created personalized tracks, each scientifically proven to enhance performance. Matching their desired mind-state, event, and musical preference. To further enhance performance, we tested and fine-tuned audio triggers, then brought the tracks to life with their favourite Australian artists. Athletes used their tracks to prepare and compete in Tokyo. As the world listened along on Spotify.

There's a well-worn formula for large event sponsorships; buy a high visibility placement and create a manifesto style ad that shouts to the world about how your brand is proudly supporting the Athletes. This is exactly what the 26 brands that were official partners of the Australian Olympic team did.

As the 27th sponsor, Samsung didn't follow the trend. Instead, we did the opposite and set out to hijack the event.

We didn't just talk about our mission, to create human-driven innovations that defy barriers to progress. We lived it by replacing the performance enhancing benefits of the crowd with another form of support.

Working with Olympians, we gave them an edge over competitors by leveraging something already used by athletes across the globe. Music. We created personalized tracks, each scientifically proven to enhance performance. Every beat, lyric, instrument and artists were chosen to match their desired mind-state, event, and musical preference. To further enhance performance, we tested and fine-tuned 13 audio-triggers, including isochronic tones, personal mantras, cadence and more. Then brought the tracks to life with their favourite Australian artist. Athletes used their tracks to prepare and compete in Tokyo as the world listened along on Spotify.

Samsung has a clear mission, to create human-driven innovations that defy barriers to progress. In the 2021 Olympics, there was a clear barrier... crowds, or the lack of them. Athletes everywhere say that the energy from the crowds can lift their performance. While we couldn’t put crowds in the stadium, we did, as part of our sponsorship deal, put phones in Athletes’ hands.

We needed to use our phones, our ecosystem (headphones and smartwatch), and our innovative spirit to provide an unfair advantage that gave our Aussie athletes the best shot when they entered the Olympic Arena. And by doing so prove that Samsung is the leader in innovation that fuels human progress.

The campaign was launched during the Olympics through our key assets; the Performance Enhancing Music tracks and the documentary film. The music was launched on Spotify through a branded playlist supported by video & audio takeovers on the platform. The documentary film was launched on YouTube and supported by 15s & 30s spots across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, SNAP and YouTube. In line with how music albums are dropped by artists, we launched OOH street posters during the Olympics period to infiltrate culture. We also connected with younger audiences through our SNAP AR lens, customer-built AR tech that allowed our customers to create their own performance enhancing music. The campaign ran until the conclusion of the Paralympic games.

The campaign delivered wide reach:

- 83 million impressions

- Over 183 thousand minutes listened

- 22 million video views

The campaign also delivered 182,879 site visits, with a valuable 73.3% share of the audience being Apple customers.

The campaign delivered a big uplift in Ad Recall across channels:

+12.23% improvement in Ad Recall vs. Control on YouTube

+45.45% improvement in Ad Recall vs. Control on SNAP

+135.71% improvement in Ad Recall vs. Control on Twitter