2012 Silver Best use of mobile

Client Samsung

How did the campaign make a difference? The Samsung Hope Relay app was designed to engage users with Samsung in the build-up to the London 2012 Olympics. It’s been downloaded 369,454 times since launch and $1,272,153 (£796,692) has been raised to date.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? Samsung was a sponsor of the 2012 Summer Olympics torch relay, which toured the length and breadth of the UK in the days leading up to the Olympics. Samsung worked with Velti to develop and launch a tie-in running app, the Samsung Hope Relay App for iOS, Android, Bada Operating Systems and Facebook. The app logged distance by GPS and was designed to help people be part of the excitement during the build-up to the Olympics and to raise money for charity. The aim was to raise $1 million (£667,000), to be split between a range of charities including Kids Company and International Inspiration (London 2012’s international sports legacy programme). Samsung agreed to donate £1 for each mile recorded. Users were free to fundraise by running, walking or cycling. Samsung made use of its high-profile Olympic supporters, including David Beckham, Phillips Idowu and Zara Phillips, to promote the campaign globally. The app was unveiled at a launch event attended by Jamie Oliver and gold-winning Olympic cycling champion Victoria Pendleton.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? The app asked users to create custom avatars that could be uploaded to Facebook to encourage friends to participate. The avatars of the best performing fundraisers were displayed on the side of the Samsung Caravan tour bus, which followed the torch procession around the country. A key feature of the app was that users could keep track of their progress through maps, stats, leader boards and a tally of money raised. They could keep their peers updated using Facebook, Twitter, SMS and email. Friends were able to leave motivational audio messages to be played to the user by the app during use.

Results The app received strong download numbers across all platforms, not typical given that around 80% of branded iOS apps receive fewer than 1,000 downloads. The app was well received, earning 4 out of 5 on Google Play and 3.5 out of 5 on iTunes. The results demonstrate how engaging the app was, with users in the five top performing towns in the UK running over 70,000 miles – users in Lowestoft alone ran 39,480 miles!

Team Kyonghee Han, Andrew Garrihy, Tom Jefferies, Luke Mansfield, Rachel Plumb, David Balko

Other contributor Velti – Mobile app development