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 achieve increase in the Proud-to-Own brand value; Samsungs’ most important brand-KPI.

For an innovative tech brand saying ‘DoWhatYouCan’t’, we didn’t choose to just do an advertising campaign made by a proud sponsor, we started a creative partnership in which we created a mobile-based innovation that solved a real barrier. While the start is the most essential part of BMX racing, but what exactly makes a start the perfect start is the greatest mystery in BMX-history. Every BMX-rider knows that reaction, power and bike control are key aspects. But no athlete, no coach and no sport-scientist has ever discovered which ideal combination delivers the perfect start! Until Samsung FastFrame. A new customised BMX-bike, with integrated sensors and mobile application measuring the factors for the perfect start. Designed to transfer real-time data to the coaches’ smartphones, allowing them to immediately communicate adjustments to the athletes.

Creating true value for the athletes formed the campaign core. A bold statement, fitting Samsung's brand promise.

We didn’t add a logo on an athlete’s story, we created a ground-breaking tool that enabled us to write a new story together. We started a partnership to solve a real barrier within the BMX-sport, making the brand promise 'DoWhatYouCan't' concrete and tangible. We collaborated with the coaches, athletes and movement scientist to develope a groundbreaking innovation to unlock the secret of the perfect start.

The BMX-athletes trained with the Samsung FastFrame in secret. Just before the Olympics, when the buzz about sports innovations at the Olympics was at its peak, we brought it to the Dutch press. In no time the Netherlands knew about this secret weapon, and about Samsung being a real contributing sponsor for the Olympic BMX-riders.

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

July 2019 Find out how to create value, in cooperation with the national BMX-team. What’s the big barrier in BMX?

November 2019 – Start developing FastFrame; designed to talk to the different types of sensors measuring the performance and angular data from the bike.

November 2019 – May 2020 – Develop a custom app running on the coaches' Samsung Galaxy S21 and Galaxy Tab S7 to display the data in real-time. Test and improve various prototypes.

June 2020 – Start training.

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

July 2021 – Campaign follow-up talking about this secret weapon: TVC, OLV, DOOH, digital/social, Metro AdTrack.?

July 2021 Campaign personal stories of Niek Kimmann and Judy Baauw; their road to Tokyo.

August 2021 - After Olympics, a 2nd campaign flight with shared success story.

- After the press release, in no time the Netherlands knew about this ‘secret weapon’. And about Samsung being a real contributing tech sponsor. (12.983.000 impressions).

- Campaign rated highly, above the benchmark in almost every aspect. Reach: 69.557.400 impressions in the Netherlands only.

- Proud-to-Own brand-index: +16%! (Source: DJV Insights September 2021)

- View-through rate YouTube 88% (!), 60.021 article reads Branded content reading time 1:44 minutes.

- Voted No 1 sponsor by the Dutch public. Above Olympic sponsorship giants Heineken and Toyota.

- We created true value for the athletes. They discovered that they started faster if they used less power and more bike control. Totally contrary to what they had expected.

- We literally proved ‘DoWhatYouCan’t’. During the Olympics, Kimmann won Olympic BMX gold. Dutch first ever!

- The Dutch Olympic Committee: make the innovation available to all Dutch BMX-athletes. On the road to Paris 2024.