Summary
For the launch of the OnePlus 9 Pro, Amazon Specials wanted to stand out of the crowd which was either spending millions in advertising or covering unboxing videos in very standard yet boring format. To achieve this, the brand had to think out of the box. Taking inspiration from OnePlus's core thought of "Never Settle" the brand partnered with a group of professional skydivers & unboxed the OnePlus 9 Pro 9000 ft above the ground.
Challenge
March 2021 was one of the hottest months on record in India - when it came to launches of new smartphones. Techradar data showed that 26 (count ‘em - 26!) smartphones were launching in India in March 2021, and the OnePlus 9 Pro was just one among the crowd. With the smartphone category becoming ever more competitive, Amazon Specials needed to make sure that the OnePlus 9 Pro launch got the attention it deserved, and didn't get lost in the clutter of what was quickly becoming known as ‘phone launch season', without resorting to simple advertising or the usual influencer partnerships.
Objective
Our campaign objective was simple - announce the launch with a mega event that would raise the bar for phone launches everywhere. This meant we needed to beat industry benchmarks, as well as our own past benchmarks, across the board when it came to driving awareness. Our KPIs gave us the chills: Beat the industry benchmark VTR by at least 30% Beat our own CTRs by at least 20% And last but not least, create a video so compelling that it got at least a 75% video completion rate - a tall order when attention spans around the world were shrinking
Strategy
Like good strategists everywhere, we started with the data. We knew that unboxing videos were fast becoming the most watched type of video content out there, and YouTube data corroborated this. Unboxing videos were receiving over 60 million hours of watch time, making this category one of the most popularly viewed video categories ever. Leading up to a smartphone launch, people are waiting for the first look, first impressions & reviews in the form of the phone's unboxing. This gives technophiles the first real glimpse into the biggest updates in the hardware, the packaging, the features and more. With all eyes on the big reveal, unboxing video views are shared on not just Youtube but all video sharing platforms. So we watched a bunch of them. And we found there was something lacking in this drill. Unboxing videos were becoming tedious. Formulaic. Even… boring. Even for smartphone fanatics, such as ourselves. To blow benchmarks out of the water, you need to think out of the box. So we decided to throw the usual unboxing formula out the window. In a world of smartphone fanatics for whom the launch of a new phone gets their blood pumping and their hearts racing, a regular unboxing video just wouldn't cut it. Taking inspiration from OnePlus's core thought, we decided to "Never Settle". Amazon Specials wanted to raise the bar when it comes to an unboxing video. So we raised the bar. Over 9000 feet above the ground.
Data
Walter Isaacson from Apple's packaging once said: "Steve (Jobs) and I spent a lot of time on the packaging. I love the process of unpacking something. You design a ritual of unpacking to make the product feel special. Packaging can be theatre, it can create a story." A Google Consumer Survey Showed : Over 90,000 people type ‘unboxing' into YouTube every month. Over 62% of the audience that watch unboxing videos do so when looking for a particular product At least 60 million hours have been spent watching other people open things. This data led us to ensure that when people watch their next unboxing video, Amazon Special's unboxing of the OnePlus 9Pro, they would never be able to settle for anything less again.
Solution
Creating the most "out of the box" unboxing. When one imagines an unboxing video, it is always an influencer sitting in front of the camera droning on about the product as they unbox it. This is the standard format. But OnePlus never settles and never lets its consumers settle. It was time to break the clutter and take the thinking out of the box. Amazon Specials decided to launch the OnePlus 9 Pro 9000 feet above the ground. The brand partnered with a team of professional skydivers who reached 9000 feet to unbox the smartphone mid-air.
Results
This unique unboxing experience not only broke the clutter but helped the brand reach soaring heights in achieving a successful launch! The unboxing received: Over 8 Million Impressions Over 3 Million Views We beat past CTRs by over 30% And finally, we achieved 52% Better VTRs than the Industry Benchmark With a Video Completion Rate of a whopping 83%. That's not all, the unboxing even grabbed media attention! Publications like Medianews4u, BW Marketing World, Agency Reporter, In Shorts, Ad Gully, Eventfaqs, First Post, Mad over marketing and Dinasuvadu Tamil raved about the activity!
