Can the Worst Instagram Account Ever tell the story of the best smartphone camera ever? We went to Iceland, the country with the longest twilight in the world, to find an authentic character that could help us tell the story.

Rúnar Jónsson is a fisherman who likes to share pictures of his daily life on Instagram. The problem: his smartphone couldn’t cope with the low-light conditions, so his Instagram is basically a collage of vague dark squares. That made Rúnar the ‘proud’ owner of the Worst Instagram Account. Ever.

We handed Rúnar a brand new Samsung Galaxy S7. Everything that happened was up to Rúnar. We were simply there to document it. The story unfolded on his Instagram account and an intimate online film.

The idea called for a campaign that is mobile-first, authentic and engaging. That’s why we made Rúnar’s Instagram account the pivot of the conversation. We boosted the popularity of his dark pictures with online editorial mentions spreading the word about Rúnar, the Icelandic fisherman breaking the Instagram convention of sharing only your best pictures.

As the campaign snowballed, we seeded the documentary film on social media (Facebook, YouTube) to introduce Rúnar to a broader audience.

Timeline:

- Posting dark pictures on Instagram

- Seeding (non branded) the Worst Instagram Account Ever

- Seeding (non branded) the online film on social media (Facebook, YouTube, blogs)

- Posting beautiful pictures on Instagram

- Boosting (branded) the online film on social media

- Posting beautiful pictures on Instagram

In a short period, from 21 April to 11 May, the campaign generated over 45 million impressions.

In just a few days, Rúnar gained more than 5,500 followers on his Instagram.

Media coverage for the Worst Instagram Account Ever generated a click-through of 775%.

The post of his first picture with the Galaxy S7 got over 700 reactions and 2,000 likes.

One of his fans started #runarforpresident, which quickly became a trending topic.

After a few days, the campaign made it to the top 5 virals in the Netherlands.

The account had over 20% engagement rate per post.

The overall campaign performance beat the benchmark by 224%.

Once Rúnar started adding his new Samsung Galaxy S7 pictures, the conversation really took off. Followers went head to head debating whether this was just a campaign, a true story or both. A lot of heart-warming reactions pushed Rúnar to take more pictures.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 has many great features, but one feature resonates more in this social age than others: a camera that can take perfect pictures even in low-light conditions. This idea created the big opportunity to ‘own the twilight’; the magical moment to shoot stunning pictures, just before sunrise and just after sunset. The idea builds on this strategy.

The online media strategy focused on relevant platforms that work across mobile devices and desktops: Instagram, editorial placement and social media (video posts on Facebook and YouTube). A landing page at theworstinstagram.nl acts as a default destination and drives conversion to the Samsung product pages.

The new Samsung Galaxy S7 phone has the best camera ever built into a smartphone. It creates stunning pictures, even in difficult and low-light conditions. But how do you convince consumers of this fact when the competition has blinded them with a global OOH campaign featuring their own camera. We chose to take the conversation to the consumer on their turf, online with an engaging story that demonstrates beyond any doubt the S7 camera’s unique picture quality.