Apple already did it, but now Samsung too uses storytelling to promote their newest and fanciest smartphone. In this YouTube video, you get the story behind the design of the Samsung Galaxy SIII.
There’s a couple of things to say about this.
First of all, it’s brilliant marketing, because it even speaks to people who don’t want to hear about technical features or pixel resolution or processing details.
It’s a story about a bunch of highly talented and passionate people who work on one of the most successful products that will be released to market.
And even though the designers talk about technical things – new manufacturing processes, materials used and so on – it doesn’t sound like that. It’s emotional. He talks about the flow of water, the shimmer of pebbles in a stream on a sunny day, about gracefulness.
They talk about technology that works so well that you don’t even notice it – technology that’s so intuitive you don’t have to adapt to it, where interaction is emotionally engaging at first contact – just like with a human being.
They talk about natural sound design, so that when you use your phone it sounds like a stroll in the forest. The sound designers don’t just sit in front of computers, they used water, they used milk, juice and yogurt to create the perfect sound. You learn that the final sound of the dialer was the sound of orange juice dropping into a small cup – how fascinating is that? Think about it – you wouldn’t expect orange juice sounding different from water or apple juice, but the sound designers who created the auditory interface for the SIII explored it so deeply that they found out orange juice creates the ideal sound.
The swiping motion you make to unlock your phone? They designed the phone so it reminds you of the feeling of running your hands through soft grass, or dipping your feet into a stream of clear water, or the cool breeze of a bicycle ride..
Do you see all these meaningful mental pictures they are painting? All these fundamental and universal human experiences? All of the sudden, it’s not about the phone anymore. It’s not about functions. It’s about you, it’s about a part of your life and how it can be better than it currently is. They’re not trying to sell, but they are inspiring you to buy with this brilliantly created – let’s face it – advertisement.