Red’s campaign to launch the Samsung Genio Touch saw the mobile handset link with one of the hottest music acts around to make a big splash.

With the task of driving coverage, appealing to a youth audience and targeting both male and female orientated media, Red recommended working with chart-topping girl band, The Saturdays.

The band had great media appeal, the target audience loved them (girls wanted to be them, boys wanted to date them), and they were due to launch a new single around the time of the handset launch which maximised news value. 

With The Saturdays on board, Red utilised them for an exclusive photo shoot and a live handset launch event.

The photo shoot produced exclusive sets of images, each one used to target specific media to guarantee coverage including OK! and Zoo magazines. Once these exclusives had been published, the photos were then used to secure coverage in national newspapers such as The Sun, Daily Telegraph and Metro.

The launch event was held at Proud Camden and featured a photo call and exclusive interviews with print, broadcast and online media including Capital Radio, Closer and The Sun.

11 competitions also ran across consumer media and key youth blogs for fans to win exclusive tickets to the event.

As well as traditional media, social media was harnessed to drive word-of-mouth excitement amongst The Saturday’s fans through the band issuing Facebook updates and Tweets pre and post launch event.

Underpinning The Saturdays activity, Red also ran a comprehensive handset reviews programme.

The campaign was successful on many levels: 

• Awareness of the handset was generated through over 80 pieces of coverage, the social media activity and the launch party which was attended by over 350 people, including 52 media attendees.
• Partnering with the band helped the handset appeal to its target youth audience plus generated buzz around the launch. 
• The campaign was also cost effective, delivering a 6:1 return on investment and coverage worth an advertising value equivalent of over £900,000.