Samsung helps black cats take better selfies in new social media campaign via Colenso BBDO

Black cats have been in the news lately due to the fact that they are being abandoned, and all because they don’t take good selfies. The RSPCA in the UK reported that 70 percent of cats waiting for adoptions are black and one of the reasons people are ignoring them is they are trickier to photograph.

Samsung New Zealand, via Colenso BBDO Auckland, thought it could help and quickly reacted with a smart social campaign that offered a practical solution for all cat lovers whilst at the same time highlighting features of their latest smartphone, the Samsung GS5.

Working with renowned animal photographer Rachael Hale McKenna and the Auckland SPCA Samsung ran a very special photo-shoot that demonstrated how to take better photos of black cats, so people everywhere can help resolve the problem of abandoned or un-adopted cats

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McKenna used the Samsung GS5 to take some pretty heart-warming pics and created an instructional video for cat owners that was placed on Samsung’s New Zealand Facebook page. So far the campaign has reached 538,368 people with 33,496 video views.

Says Mike Cornwell, marketing director at Samsung New Zealand: “With cats being one of the most popular online subjects, we were hoping the video would inspire Kiwis and others the world over, to do a better job of photographing cats and ensure that more cats, regardless of their colour are given a loving home.”

Neville Doyle, planning director – digital and social at Colenso, explained the strategy behind the campaign and why social was the perfect channel for the idea: “‘Black Cats’ allowed us to use the flexible, real time nature of social conversations to our advantage. With the gap between branded content creation and consumer consumption growing wider, brands need to creatively find ways integrate themselves into existing consumer conversations. The key though is how to do so in a relevant, entertaining way that truly adds value rather than interrupting consumers.”

Client:

Katie Nimon – Producer