Samsung #SpaceSelfie puts fans' faces in space via a Galaxy S10 5G at 65,000 ft

Samsung Europe's new CMO Benjamin Braun wanted a first brand campaign that demonstrated the company's 'Do What You Can't' spirit. BBH felt phone advertising had become samey — gleaming devices at beautiful angles — so the task was to show what a Galaxy S10 5G could actually do, in a way specs never could.

Prove the phone instead of describing it: float a Galaxy S10 5G to 65,000 ft, receive fans' selfies, and beam back a real photo of each face against Earth.

BBH sent a Galaxy S10 5G up on a super-pressure balloon half the size of a basketball court to 64,900 ft. Fans uploaded photos to the 'Mission Control' site; the phone layered them over live Earth footage, shot the composite and sent it back. With no TV ads, Cara Delevingne, Son Heung-min and Mina El Hammani seeded the campaign as ambassadors, managed with Publicis Sport & Entertainment.

The first SpaceSelfie was unveiled at a star-studded event at Samsung KX in London. Content generated 41.6M interactions at a 3.5:1 ROI against talent investment, and Samsung offered up to 65,000 SpaceSelfies as prizes across its global promotions.

In October 2019, Samsung Europe and BBH London launched #SpaceSelfie, a campaign built on one literal promise: upload your photo, and Samsung will fly it to the edge of the atmosphere and send back a real picture of your face with planet Earth behind it. It was the first brand campaign launched in Europe under new CMO Benjamin Braun and was built around the Galaxy S10 5G.

The mechanics were as ambitious as the promise. A super-pressure high-altitude balloon, half the size of a basketball court, carried a specially built rig with a Galaxy S10 5G to 64,900 feet. Fans registered at the 'Mission Control' website; their selfies were transmitted up, displayed on the phone's screen against live footage of Earth, photographed, and beamed back down as limited-edition SpaceSelfies.

Rather than spending on above-the-line media, the campaign ran on earned and influencer-led channels. Cara Delevingne, Son Heung-min and Mina El Hammani became the first people to get their faces in space, and their teasers sent fans to Mission Control. On 23 October, Delevingne's first SpaceSelfie was unveiled at a celebrity event at Samsung's new KX experience space in London, where Samsung said up to 65,000 SpaceSelfies were on offer across its global promotions.

It made the product the proof: a real phone taking a real photo at 65,000 ft beat any CGI claim competitors could make.

Participation was the media: every fan's face was the creative, so the campaign was personal, unique and worth sharing.

Talent got an artifact, not a script — ambassadors could post an actual photo of themselves in space, which seeded the story naturally.

Skipping above-the-line forced earned coverage, keeping the wow of 'your face in space' intact rather than flattening it into a TV ad.

When every competitor advertises the same specs, let the product perform the message: a real photo from the stratosphere is a claim no rival can fake, and each fan gets a personal artifact.

SpaceSelfie ran through October 2019 and delivered thousands of personalised images to phones across Europe, with the campaign also celebrating Samsung's 50th anniversary. In late October, one of the balloon rigs came down on a farm in rural Michigan; the Welke family said they were relieved it missed their house and horses, and Samsung sent a crew to recover it. The crash made headlines worldwide, but no one was hurt, and the campaign's case page still reports 41.6M interactions and a 3.5:1 ROI on talent investment.