CLIENT Samsung SmartThings
Year
2022
Services
Audience, Channel + Content Strategy. Creative, Content + Production. Performance Testing + Optimization. Strategy + Applied Data.
Taking Samsung’s “SmartThings” from the physical to the digital world
BRAND CHALLENGE
HOW was hired to orchestrate the transition of SmartThings from a hardware offering – which always had an app as part of the ecosystem – to a pure app platform.
This was a challenging journey. Technical complications resulted in consumers who had been using the hardware/software connectivity – often for months or even years – finding themselves in the position of losing their saved data and having to establish completely new viewing routines.
This was posing major issues for Samsung, as they were investing a great deal of time and money in the app, and were adding functionality at the same time. In addition, there were gaps in customer service, making the situation worse.
Consumers were not being heard and were letting their frustrations out on social media. Loudly and continually.
OUR STRATEGY
Changing the approach, changing the conversation, changing the outcome.
HOW’s Phase One analysis revealed that SmartThings lacked a unified content and messaging strategy across all channels. We immediately created a social media playbook to bring all that together, so that product and brand marketing were aligned.
This enabled us to compensate for the gap in customer service with intensive communication and community management, thus giving the organization time to catch up.
Once this issue was stabilized, we entered into a Phase Two program. This consisted of a SmartThings digital brand creative overhaul, moving it from a Samsung “corporate feel” to more engaging social content that showed the fun and entertainment experience of the app in use.
That experience-shaping work included highlights and features of the partners whose content was available on the app, including Hey Google, BOSE, SONOS, and arlo to name a few. At the same time, HOW featured relevant individuals at SmartThings to humanize the platform.
KEY RESULTS
68%
increase in positive sentiment on social
100%
digital brand creative overhaul
ONE
content and messaging strategy across all channels
