Samsung’s Olympic tour gets cheers with Ear to the Ground

Events and Live Communications agency, Ear to the Ground is on the road inspiring over one million Olympics fans to ‘Take Part’ in Samsung’s sponsorship of London 2012 and the Olympic Torch Relay. So far they have taken the activity from the Southwest through Wales over to Northern Ireland and are currently making their way across the North. The activity ends on 26th July in front of 70,000 people in Hyde Park the day before the Olympics starts.

The agency which has kept the appointment under wraps, has spent the last six months working with Samsung’s Sponsorship Team to develop a ‘Samsung Big Cheer’ concept that puts live experience as the focal point of a wider Samsung communications campaign and communicates the idea of ‘Taking Part through Shared Technology Moments’.

The 40-strong Ear to the Ground team are 25 dates into a mammoth 66 date tour that takes the Torch within 10 miles of 95 per cent of the entire population for what is effectively the biggest consecutive tour in UK history. The team have produced a Samsung ‘Live Ad’ that not only gets performed live to thousands at each evening celebration event, but that also puts Olympic fans at the core of the brand’s Olympic Torch Relay communications.

Ear to the Ground has produced and directed a 20 minute, high energy, high impact, live stage show featuring some of the UK’s best street dance and performance talent. The show puts the new Galaxy SIII product at the heart of the entertainment and urges fans to take part in then Samsung Hope Relay endorsed by celebs and sports heroes, including David Beckham. The agency has also managed all staffing and logistics for experiential showcase zone that comes complete with a Samsung Galaxy Torch Festival Zone.

The finale of each show is a ‘wow moment’ that takes the presenters and street dance duo ‘Twist & Pulse’ high above the crowd using a hydraulic lift intensified by pyrotechnics. Consumers are urged to cheer for the Olympics as a giant high resolution image is captured using state of the art technology. Within 90 minutes consumers can go online and tag themselves to mark this once in a lifetime experience.

Ear to the Ground MD, Steve Smith says “previous crowd tagging technology involves taking many shots over a period of time and stitching them together. We wanted to capture an actual shared moment in real time. This meant using innovative scanning technology that captures an audience of up to 50,000 people in 4 seconds.”

So far approximately 200,000 have enjoyed the Samsung show with 60,000 Hope Relay app downloads and 15,000 consumer tags in the ‘Samsung Big Cheer’. All are rising exponentially as local networks are communicating virally how easy it is to ‘Take Part’.

Martin Howard, sponsorship director at Samsung says, “We knew that Ear to the Ground had extensive experience in working with sports and music fans. They came up with a brilliant concept that really brought to life the idea of ‘Taking part through shared technology moments‘. The live experience harnesses the power of real people and their very real reactions and emotions to earn social media, PR coverage and drive consumers to our online hub where all Olympic content gets aggregated www.samsung.com/uk/london2012.”

Ear to the Ground MD, Steve Smith comments: “Our appointment reinforces our drive to put live moments as the focal point of wider communications campaigns. At Ear to the Ground we create live ads that leverage the intoxicating power of live experience to tell a brand’s story in the greatest possible way. The Samsung Big Cheer stays true to this, immersing fans and followers of both the brand and the Olympics in an authentic, emotionally-charged, real time brand experience.”