There was plenty of talk at this year’s Cannes Lions festival about brands “doing good” and behaving in an ethical fashion. But delivering this on a consistent basis for a gigantic global advertiser is no easy thing.
So it was a privilege for Cheil to win Cannes Gold in the cyber category for Samsung’s Look At Me campaign. The work is part of the brand’s broader “Launching People” initiative that underpins Samsung’s commitment to unleash the dreams and passions of individuals around the world through ideas and technology.
Samsung is well known for launching products, but less well known for developing those products to help people launch their own talents. This became the idea that informed the whole Look At Me initiative. It came from the thought that when consumers and Samsung come together, something amazing happens. The app was created as a way to translate Samsung’s brand ideal into reality – to put technology to use to make the world a better place.
Look At Me was developed to help children with autism make eye contact. Their inability to have that contact not only stifles their broader social development but often means family and friends don’t feel the kind of connection they do with other people about whom they care. The app had the power to bring children closer to their parents and the fascinating thing was to work with a brand on delivering a message beyond product features. It’s not often we have the opportunity to contribute to something so meaningful.
This was a natural thing for Samsung because its brand DNA has always been based around the idea of “innovation for all” – regardless of who people are, where they live and what they do. It’s important to Samsung to make a difference by touching people’s hearts and changing their lives.
Our real challenge was to persuade parents to take part in the project. Korean mothers, and possibly those in other markets too, don’t necessarily want to address in public the issues that their children face. We were encouraged, however, by the response of one mother when we asked for reactions to the app. She told us: “If we can use this to help other mothers get close to their [autistic] children, I would love to do this.”
Insights such as this convinced us that Look At Me would be a valuable initiative for Samsung, complementing other initiatives such as Power Sleep, an app that helps users contribute their mobile phone’s processing power to scientific research while they sleep.
This might sound less challenging than helping to bring mothers and children together but was an important part of our work in sharing Samsung’s ambition to create technology that helps us all develop.
Wain Choi is vice president, global executive creative director of Cheil Worldwide
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