Sport innovation is a hot topic, especially right before the Olympics. Who has a new invention? What is the latest development in sports? Is there a country with a secret weapon for the Olympics? With Samsung FastFrame we created a highly relevant innovation to increase the athlete’s chance of winning. The entire Dutch sports media took up the story of our tech contribution, spreading the word that it might just be the secret weapon for the Dutch BMX athletes.

Samsung has been the Worldwide Olympic Partner since 1998. For the Summer Games in Tokyo, Samsung Electronics Benelux sponsored BMX riders Niek Kimmann and Judy Baauw. The brief was to develop a strategy and creative idea for a sponsorship campaign around the Games that connects seamlessly with the Samsung brand mantra: ‘Do What You Can’t’.

Concrete objectives: achieve a top-3 position as a named Olympic sponsor in the Netherlands in a market saturated with major Olympic campaigns. And increase the Proud-to-Own brand value; Samsungs’ most important brand KPI.

As the bicycle capital of the world, the Netherlands has excellent cycling results at the Olympics (49 medals, 18x gold), but BMX racing has been nowhere near as successful (2 medals, 0x gold).

As sponsor of two Dutch BMX athletes, you can hope for Olympic success. But as a tech brand saying ‘Do What You Can’t’, why not help them to be successful?

BMX is all about the perfect start; with 70% of all BMX-races being won in the first 6 meters. This start consists of 3 elements: reaction speed, power and the angle at which the bike is pulled up. The ideal combination of these three factors is the biggest mystery in BMX. Until we developed Samsung FastFrame. A new customised BMX bike, with built-in sensors measuring the factors in real time. The data, directly transferred to the coaches' smartphones, unlocked this ideal combination for the perfect start.

Creating true value for the athletes (Samsung FastFrame as a daily training tool) and the big press launch of the innovative secret weapon, formed the campaign core. A bold statement, fitting Samsung's brand promise.

Sport innovation is a hot topic, especially right before the Olympics. Who has a new invention? What is the latest development? Is there a country with a secret weapon? So, we decided not to just add a logo on an athlete’s story, we created an innovative tool that enabled us to write a new story together.

We collaborated with the BMX-coaches, athletes and movement-scientist to develop a ground-breaking tool. The athletes trained secretly with the Samsung FastFrame. Just before the Olympics, when the buzz about innovations at the Olympics was at its peak, we brought it to the Dutch press.

During the Olympics, we demonstrated our intense involvement with the Olympians and earned appreciation with newsjacking videos and real-time advertising.

Afterwards, when we knew Samsung had succeeded in helping the athletes succeed, we launched the second PR-flight to celebrate this shared success story.

First we needed to know how to create value for the BMX riders. Because only a real contribution would work for our PR campaign. Our key to success had to be innovation; our secret weapon for effective PR.

July 2019: We started collaborating with the national BMX team to find the greatest barrier in BMX. That’s where the idea for Samsung FastFrame was born.

November 2019 – May 2020: We developed, tested and improved various prototypes.

June 2020: Training with Samsung FastFrame started, continuing until the Games in summer 2021.

23 June 2021: PR launch. Samsung FastFrame presented to the entire Dutch media.

Early July 2021: Campaign follow-up with TVC, Online video, DOOH, digital/social backstory content, Metro AdTrack and catch-up sets for after the finals?

August 2021: After the Olympics, a 2nd PR flight with shared success story.

After the press release, in no time all of the Netherlands knew about this ‘secret weapon’ and about Samsung being a real contributing tech sponsor. Primetime news, biggest Late Night talk shows, online, printed and digital press. 61 national publications, 12.983.000 impressions.

The campaign rated highly and performed above the benchmark in almost every aspect. Completed views campaign video: 88%. High engagement rate, even on TikTok: 1.8%. 60.021 Branded article reads (average 1:44 minutes). Reach: 69.557.400 impressions in the Netherlands only.

With a relatively small media budget, Samsung was voted No 1 sponsor by the Dutch public. Above Olympic sponsorship giants such as Heineken and Toyota.

The uniqueness of this sponsorship benefited the brand significantly: Samsung’s Brand barometer (Proud-to-Own index): +16%!

We created true value for the athletes. While training with the FastFrame, they discovered that their starts became significant faster if they used less power and more bike control. Totally contrary to what they had expected. It has enabled the athletes to gain a 30-millisecond advantage at the start.

We literally proved ‘DoWhatYouCan’t’ with Kimmann winning the first ever Dutch Olympic BMX gold medal. Three weeks later, Kimmann won gold and Baauw won silver at the UCI BMX World Championships.

Using digital technologies Samsung FastFrame transformed the fundamental understanding of the BMX-start and pushes the sport forward by using data. The Dutch Olympic Committee wants to make the innovation available to all Dutch BMX athletes. On the road to Paris 2024.

Source: DJV Insights September 2021