"Choose your own adventure meets YouTube! What a creative use for YouTube as a delivery mechanism for an interactive experience." —juror Michelangelo Capraro

"This unique online experience pulls visitors deep into its continuous storyline through an imaginative use of linking videos." —juror Amber Bezahler

Overview: In 2008 Samsung Canada introduced the Samsung Instinct, a touch screen smartphone targeted at young professionals aged 24–35. This teaser campaign provoked conversation in the market while speaking about the key features and benefits of owning an intuitive touch smartphone and introducing the latest generation of mobile technology. Along with the main video upload, the series was tagged using relevant product features that called-up supporting videos of random "underground" product demos that were leaked from the U.S. and featured individuals using the Instinct in a viral product review manner; it provided the ideal supporting content to further connect the campaign to the product.

• There were over 390,000 total video views. The entire Webisode series includes nine videos at approximately one minute per video, which equates to approximately 6,500 hours of viewing time.
• Within two days of the launch, the campaign had hundreds of blog entries and a write-up in the Globe and Mail. With a limited production budget and zero media budget, reach could not have been achieved any other way.

Comments by Eric Vieira:
What drove the creative development? "Strategically we felt that the message delivery would need to be done in an innovative and industry leading manner. We wanted to ensure that the target would be able to fully experience what it would be like to own a Samsung Instinct. With the Instinct being positioned as the new generation of mobile technology, we needed to follow suit in how our target received the message.

"It was also decided that a teaser campaign was necessary to provoke conversation in the market. One month prior to the Instinct's launch Apple was introducing its iconic iPhone which would, in functionality and form factor, compete in the mindset of our target. We wanted to present them with another option before confirming their purchase selection.

"Two weeks prior to briefing this project, YouTube introduced annotations to their video upload functionality. This addition allows users to embed actionable CTAs that would link through to relevant videos creating what some call a 'choose you own adventure' treatment. We recognized this creative opportunity immediately and felt that the Samsung campaign would be the perfect marriage with the new technology. It fit the campaign objectives, brand positioning and target insight perfectly. We were the first agency in the world to market a product using this technology. We knew that alone would generate a lot of buzz.

"To ensure the campaign would pique interest and provoke conversation we decided to create an unbranded treatment where the only attachment back to the brand was the name of the video 'Follow Your Instinct,' the name of the user account 'SamsungCanadaFilms' and, of course, the product itself.

"The premise of the story is that 'Urban Professional Guy' wakes up from a night of partying not knowing where he is. He instantly gathers himself together and gets his day going using the Samsung Instinct. Throughout the story he's presented with options of what to do next, which is where the interactivity comes into play as users select his path. At then end of the day if he 'Follows his instinct' throughout, he ends up in the ideal situation."