Six weeks of experiential activity by Samsung to promote its new Tocco touchscreen phone, which kicked off recently with a one-day event at the technology company’s UK headquarters on 24 July, is drawing to a close with reports of positive reactions from the general public.

The campaign continued with two-day stints at in high-footfall areas at major shopping centres, including the Oracle Reading, the Bullring Birmingham, Bluewater in Kent and the Arndale Manchester. It will at Lakeside in Essex on 31 August.

Tocco: Raising awareness

The aim of the campaign, which was run by experiential marketing agency TRO, was to boost awareness of the Tocco and drive people to retail stores. The face-to-face activity was designed to reflect Samsung’s current above-the-line activity for the phone.

Promotional units highlighting the ‘Please Touch’ message, invited people to touch one of six handsets built into the units’ design, for their chance to win a Samsung Tocco or a subscription to T3 gadget magazine. By doing so, they were experiencing the handset’s functionality – specifically its drag and drop facility.

A bespoke Java game installed in the handsets led consumers to answer three questions about the Tocco. Correct answers generated a request for the customer’s mobile number, after which they were sent a code via text, driving them to the nearest Samsung phone store.

Once in store, the customer’s code was punched into an Ultra PC which revealed whether they had won a prize. The instant prize at each location was an annual T3 subscription, and on each of the promotional days one customer won a Samsung Tocco.

“This was the fist time we had used more technological applications for the competition mechanic,” said Samsung’s channel marketing manager Georgina Grantham. “The Java game on the handsets and the Samsung Q1 Ultra tablet PC within the stores underpinned the Tocco’s sophisticated technology, and also provided the opportunity to demonstrate Samsung’s wider product portfolio.”

Commenting on the campaign, TRO account manager James Hilken said: “Customers’ use of the in-store Ultra PCs also provided an instant data capture facility. Consumer response has been very positive, giving us a high number of competition entrants and converting to good sales figures.”

As an added in-store incentive, those people who went on to purchase a Tocco phone on the promotional days received a free Samsung digital photo frame.