How Samsung brought the Notting Hill Carnival to life online
Samsung Electronics used its 8K technology to turn the near-disastrous cancellation of Notting Hill Carnival into a virtual success story.
When Samsung Electronics UK challenged Taylor Herring to leverage its digital tech to both help those affected by the pandemic, and engage its multicultural millennial audience, Notting Hill Carnival proved a natural fit.
Covid-19 meant the London event couldn’t go ahead as planned, leaving 40,000 dancers, chefs and musicians without a platform to perform, and hours of preparation and rehearsals gone to waste. Taylor Herring felt Samsung and its 8K technology were the perfect partner to provide a solution: a virtual festival.
The strategy was to capture the heart and soul of the vibrant carnival, touching on all the people that make it possible. To drum up excitement the team first developed a film series that showcased the costumes, sounds and tastes of the Notting Hill Carnival, as well as 60 short-form films to use across social media. They created the first ever digital trailer for the event, premiering at the Piccadilly Circus digital screen, and created the first live countdown too.
The project turned a near disaster, into a triumph for both the event and the brand, which is why Samsung Electronics UK is the winner of the 2021 Marketing Week Masters award for Branded Experiences and Events.
The virtual event attracted more than 15 million views across all platforms and 7.2 million impressions on the carnival YouTube channel, all while boosting awareness of the capabilities of Samsung’s 8K, which was used to shoot much of the content.
Taking such a visual and community-driven event online was undoubtedly a risk, but one that more than paid off for everyone involved in the project.
