First, let me say that I’m a bit jaded, mainly because I simply love Samsung Canada's campaign for the Instinct phone right now. Overall, though, I like the idea of this campaign more than the actual execution.
The Pixon microsite has most of your standard functionality for sharing on Facebook, StumbleUpon and Del.icio.us, as well as the tools for following Nick via email, RSS feed, Twitter and even GPS, courtesy of Google Maps. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to tell where, exactly, Nick was in the course of his adventure from the map. The Twitter feed helped me figure out that Nick was hanging out in Japan and not Western Europe.
From a social media standpoint, I think the campaign functions well, but isn’t overly compelling. Other than a few clicks, there's nothing too "social" about the site. As a consumer, there isn't a lot of information about the phone anywhere on the site, either. You need to sit through a video to watch Nick talk about what he likes about the phone, and click on a few less-than-intuitive numbers below the video to see some different specs. I'd have included a more descriptive menu so I could choose to look at "Lens Specs" or "Processing Specs" or "Memory" rather than just 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
For photographers who might be familiar with Nick Turpin's photos, I think that most of the shots will be a bit disappointing. There isn't much detail or info about the pictures that are being displayed. Show me how to take great pictures with this phone, and I might replace the one I've got right now that takes lousy pictures. I'd like to know more about the backstory, or how a professional photographer like himself might prefer to shoot a scene like he's got. Or what he did to get the best shot he could.
For cell phone photos, however, the pictures on the microsite are clear and crisp and appear to have a nice color balance. Kudos to the quality of the lens, the photographer's eye and whoever may have touched them up in Photoshop before posting them.
Overall, I think there's a lot of potential here. But we didn't squeeze all of it out into the campaign. In an environment where cell phone manufacturers and carriers are competing relentlessly for our time, money and consideration, I think the Nick Turpin microsite will be mostly forgettable, even if the phone is excellent.
-- Corey Kronengold, senior director, marketing and communications, Tremor Media
I'm a big fan of social tools, and this site is a great example of the right way to use them. A tight integration of Flickr and YouTube added the necessary grit to make Nick's travels seem more real. Their inclusion gave an immediate sense of credibility.
The phone’s camera is awesome. Even the largest size on Flickr was impressive. Makes my Blackberry pics seem like a child's scrawl in comparison. Nick has an interesting eye, and the ability to follow his progress through the marriage of Flickr and Google Maps was very cool. Nothing seemed forced and the social tools were never flaunted. There was no subtext like, "Hey everyone, we're the giant company Samsung, but we're really just like you. See, Flickr, YouTube, huh..." Instead, it was integrated, utilitarian and came off with web street smarts and confidence.
Visually, the site was purposefully simple. Blue and white text on a black field helped alleviate competition between vibrant images and stage. Being able to click an image to choose the next subject was a great way to allow participation.
-- J. Barbush, VP associate creative director, RPA
