It seems the days of the sedate product launch, held seated over a light lunch, are over.
Yesterday Samsung enlisted French free climber Alain Robert to scale 35 floors of the Chancery Chambers building in Auckland’s CBD, the ultimate hands-free test of the Galaxy Gear smartwatch.
During the climb Robert used the smartphone-connected gadget to photograph the crowd, order room service, text friends and be interviewed for Campbell Live. The smartwatch was launched globally in September.
The stunt follows others designed to introduce an element of daring to a product launch or brand celebration.
Domino’s New Zealand this week heralded the opening of its 600th store with a delivery guy making a drop off by bungy from Queenstown’s famous Kawarau River bridge.
Microsoft New Zealand was another to celebrate dangerously with the XBox One launch, placing it in a tank at Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life Aquarium to be guarded by sharks.
Samsung’s local stunt was organised by its ad agency Colenso BBDO. Pead PR has discontinued its partnership with Samsung, and all product and PR enquiries have been redirected to Samsung in-house brand marketing manager Jo Walsh.
Samsung has recruited Fred Russo, former account director at Botica Butler Raudon, to its PR team. He wouldn’t say if Samsung had further built its in house PR team or if Samsung would choose a replacement for Pead.
