Samsung Will Go Door to Door to Generate Emmys Buzz

While Samsung turned to Ellen DeGeneres to facilitate an epic selfie moment during the 2014 Oscars, the brand for tonight's Emmys broadcast on NBC is going door to door to generate buzz. The Korean electronics company will send out street teams in New York and Los Angeles during the awards program, and they'll visit unsuspecting residents while bringing them a Samsung Curved UH9000 TV, Emmys-relevant swag (think Game of Thrones swords, T-shirts and other memorabilia) and other gifts. The brand will also zero in on Twitter and Facebook chatter about tonight's winners, while rewarding social commenters with branded digital gifts centering on the TV program that they were discussing. Working with Edelman Digital, Samsung will look to amplify those moments as they appear in social streams while also unleashing Vine videos that were made especially for tonight. "We are really trying to make social the centerpiece," said Peggy Ang, marketing vp for Samsung. "And we will have our [TV] advertising telling people about our wonderful screens. We want to celebrate this night in conversations, while creating surprises in people's homes." Why not orchestrate another celeb-dominated selfie with NBC's host Seth Meyers? "That's so last spring," Ang remarked. "Now we are onto surprising and delighting people in their homes." And then their selfies—much more democratic when compared to the million-dollar mugs of the Oscars—will become the focus, of course. Indeed, she is probably wise to believe that another epic selfie moment would be met with a merciless onslaught of "mehs" on Twitter and Facebook. Her brand, of course, was the beneficiary of DeGeneres—who was hosting the 2014 Oscars—snapping a selfie with a Samsung phone that included the face of about every celebrity up for an award that winter evening. It wasn't random, as Samsung had a deep partnership with broadcaster ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to facilitate the buzzy stunt. (Though, as Samsung CMO Todd Pendleton told Adweek, the large number of actors that ended up in the selfie randomly occurred—most of the celebs weren't prompted.) The electronics player has a similar deal in place with NBC tonight, including back-stage access to the gala that will entail looks at a branded social media dashboard that will highlight each winner's buzz in real time. "We just want to harness that celebration as a brand," Ang said. "We know there is going to be a lot of chatter. But it will be fun to capture people's reactions when they open that door."

Performance Marketing

Samsung Will Go Door to Door to Generate Emmys Buzz

Epic celeb selfie is 'so last spring,' vp says

Christopher Heine

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Christopher Heine