Boston-based integrated brand agency Digitas released their latest interactive campaign for Samsung, powered with help from NYC-based recommendation startup Hunch. This latest marketing push by Samsung is for their Smart TV platform, and the company also tapped Dan Zarrella here in Boston (who has branded himself as the “social media scientist”) to help create some YouTube videos.
Dubbed The Smart Living Room, this microsite delights in determining your movie tastes and prompting you to take advantage of the social features baked into new Samsung TVs. It also aims to help get the word out about Samsung Smart TV, a platform with more than 400 apps (from Netflix to Facebook) that features a browser, search, and a repository for your own videos. Dan Zarella, currently employed by HubSpot, is featured in YouTube video marketing for Smart TV (see below).
When you visit The Smart Living Room site, you are prompted with question after question (ten in total, or more if you’d like) — from standard introvert/extrovert questions to more obscure asks things like whether or not you keep a blog. These questions are crafted by Hunch, and after you answer a set, it identifies your taste for movies and the interactive room comes to life accordingly.
I tried it out two times, the first identified the comedy genre and dog bones came pouring out of the TV and blow-up dogs filled the room (see above). The second time I answered a set of questions it recommended Sci Fi movies, and I watched as the living room turned into a solar system. Each time, several movie titles were recommended to me to watch.
The beauty of this for Samsung is that this campaign also solicits information that will allow the company to build out personas around who’s most interested in social TV — beyond just demographics.
After this fun and personalized experience, The Smart Living Room will invite you to share your personalized viewing room with your friends and coordinate a movie watching event with them over Facebook or email. Or, as they put it, learn more about your own and your friends’ movie interests, ‘ultimately creating a customized, social movie watching event.’
“Living rooms are networked and connected like never before, and that’s changing the way people watch television,” said Seth Solomons, Worldwide Marketing Officer Digitas. “With the Smart Living Room, Samsung has created a dynamic and personalized entertainment experience that brings people together to enjoy movies in a new way.”
A Facebook tab on the Samsung Televisions brand page has been launched in connection with the microsite, offering another place for you to get recommendations with the Hunch technology and to learn more about their TV Profile.
“Customizing the movie experience is an optimal application of Hunch’s personalization technology,” said Shaival Shah, VP Business Development for Hunch. “We’re very pleased to work with the innovators at Samsung and Digitas to help bring this exciting project to life.” (It’s worth noting that Hunch’s founder, Chris Dixon, is a founding partner of Cambridge based VC firm Founder Collective, which also has an office in NYC.)
Here’s the video featuring Dan Zarrella teaching you about the social features of Samsung Smart TV:
Samsung’s VP Marketing of the Visual Display Business, Ellen Kim, believes TV is inherently social, so expect to hear more from the company as the Internet TV revolution gains more momentum.
“The Smart Living Room brings consumers one step further by giving them access to an immersive world of content and functionality that they can share. With our partners Digitas and Hunch, we’re continuing to transform the viewer experience by taking an imaginative and fresh look at everything we love about watching TV.”
What do you think of the interactive Smart Living Room? What other startups have great tech that brands should be taking more advantage of? Let us know in the comments!
