Samsung operates in one of the world's most competitive technology categories. In fast-growing digital markets like Kenya and Tanzania, the challenge isn't simply getting a smartphone in front of consumers. It's making it stand out among an overwhelming volume of content and competing technology brands.
For the flagship Samsung Galaxy S26, that meant going beyond traditional advertising.
"We need to demonstrate the Customer Experience Points and create a sense of aspiration and desirability while reaching consumers who are genuinely interested in premium smartphones," explained Levis Ryan Macharia, Digital Marketing Manager, at Samsung Electronics East Africa.
To bring the Galaxy S26 experience to life, Samsung partnered with Cheil South Africa and Eskimi to showcase its advanced AI capabilities, next-generation camera systems, and powerful performance in a more interactive and tangible way.
Making innovation impossible to overlook
The Galaxy S26 campaign focused on driving awareness, consideration, and excitement around Samsung's flagship proposition. The campaign ran across Kenya and Tanzania, structured around tailored creative formats and precision targeting:
- Immersive Creatives: Used 3D and interactive formats to bring the phone's hardware and AI features to life.
- Flagship Positioning: Focused on tech-savvy audiences and premium upgrade prospects.
- Contextual Intelligence: Reached high-intent tech enthusiasts through content such as phone reviews and comparisons, AI innovation, camera tests, mobile photography, travel, business, and high-performance gaming.
"One of the biggest challenges is ensuring that our advertising stands out in an environment where consumers are exposed to a very high volume of content and competing technology brands," shared Levis Ryan Macharia.
Finding premium consumers in the right context
Reaching the right consumers required more than broad demographic targeting. The campaign focused on 25–54-year-olds and used device price targeting of $600+ to prioritize consumers already using higher-value smartphones and more likely to be in the market for a premium device.
"We wanted to reach people who were receptive to innovation and could appreciate the differentiated features and experience offered by the Galaxy S26," explained Levis Ryan Macharia.
DeepContext added another layer of relevance by looking beyond who the consumer was to understand what they were interested in at that moment. Powered by AI, DeepContext analyzes the full meaning and context of content rather than relying only on individual keywords, helping Samsung appear alongside content that genuinely matched the Galaxy S26 audience.
The strategy focused on high-intent tech enthusiasts and premium smartphone buyers consuming content around flagship smartphone reviews and comparisons, AI and technology innovation, camera tests, mobile photography, travel, business, and high-performance gaming.
We prioritized consumers actively researching and comparing their next premium device, creating opportunities to reach them closer to moments of consideration.
The overall strategy remained consistent across Kenya and Tanzania but was adapted to each local content landscape. Kenya prioritized English-language content and Kenyan tech creators, while Tanzania placed greater emphasis on Swahili-English content and Tanzanian and East African creators.
This combination of premium device signals, content relevance, and local language helped Samsung narrow a broad digital audience into consumers with stronger signals of premium smartphone interest.
Turning smartphone features into an experience
To make the flagship experience stand out across digital environments, the campaign combined different Rich Media formats, each playing a distinct role in capturing attention, driving interaction, and scaling Samsung's message.
"Rich Media let us create a more premium, immersive experience. Eskimi was involved in helping us think through how the creative could work within the format to maximize impact," noted Levis Ryan Macharia.
3D Forced Perspective
3D formats transformed Samsung's product visuals into dimensional experiences, using depth and movement to make Galaxy S26 stand out within busy digital environments.
The format became the campaign's strongest attention performer, achieving 1,931 APM, 130% above the industry benchmark. It recorded the highest average view time and view rate across all formats, at 4.56 seconds and 42.3%.
Interactive Twisting
The Twisting Rich Media brought an additional layer of movement and interaction to Samsung's product storytelling, encouraging consumers to engage with the creative rather than passively view it.
It delivered the strongest performance in driving clicks and engagement, achieving a 0.9% CTR (95% higher than the other creatives) and a 12.3% engagement rate (52% higher than the rest).
Ready-Made Rich Media
Templated formats from Eskimi Rich Media Builder gave Samsung the scale needed to bring its flagship story to a broad premium audience while maintaining an engaging creative experience. With 30+ rich media templates to choose from, Samsung could select the formats that best reflected the premium look and feel of the Galaxy S26.
Ready-Made Rich Media drove the most scale, delivering 8.67 million impressions and reaching 2.33 million people, making it a key driver of overall campaign visibility.
Driving scale and attention across East Africa
Across Kenya and Tanzania, the Galaxy S26 campaigns combined significant scale with strong engagement and attention, reaching more than 3.27 million people through 13.8 million impressions. The campaign also drove strong interaction, achieving an 8.11% engagement rate and a 0.46% CTR.
Beyond delivery, the campaign outperformed attention benchmarks across every measured metric:
- 1,554 APM, 85% above benchmark;
- 3.86 seconds average view time, 57% above benchmark;
- 40.3% view rate, 18% above benchmark.
Each market brought a different strength to the campaign. Tanzania stood out for engagement and attention, reaching 1.52 million people, while Kenya drove greater scale, reaching 1.75 million people.
Together, the two markets showed how the campaign could reach premium audiences at scale while driving attention above industry benchmarks.
"The campaigns delivered against their core objectives and provided strong evidence for the role of Rich Media and contextual targeting within our digital strategy. We looked beyond simple delivery to scale, audience reach, creative engagement, and whether the product message appeared in a relevant environment," commented Levis Ryan Macharia.
