What it had to solve
Part of an ongoing Samsung–Netflix collaboration: drive intrigue for the new Stranger Things episodes and the Galaxy S22 Ultra's Nightography feature in one global campaign.
The idea
The film's scare is the demo: a phone forgotten in a back pocket records demo-monsters in the dark, so only Nightography could show you what was lurking.
How it works
BBH USA's short film, directed by Jonathan Entwistle (The End of the F***ing World), follows a young girl and her friends on an innocent night ride, unaware that demo-monsters trail them; arriving at a watch party, she finds the S22 Ultra in her back pocket recorded the whole ride. It launched on June 22, 2022 with demogorgons and show Easter eggs, retail presence at Best Buy, and a social and digital push.
What it did
The article reports no view or sales figures. It describes the film as a global launch with a large retail presence and heavy social and digital focus, deepening an ongoing Samsung–Netflix collaboration.
Background
Ahead of Stranger Things season 4, volume 2, Samsung and Netflix launched 'Stranger Nights', a short film by BBH USA built around the Galaxy S22 Ultra's Nightography night-mode camera. The premise: showing what sights can be captured in the dark, even when filmed accidentally.
Directed by Jonathan Entwistle, creator of The End of the F***ing World, the film evokes the series' cinematic quality: a young girl and her friends take a seemingly innocent night ride while demo-monsters lurk a few feet behind. Only when she reaches a watch party does she discover the S22 Ultra in her back pocket recorded the entire ride, revealing the Upside Down thanks to Nightography.
Entwistle said he wanted the project to feel more filmic than commercial, with the phone as a portal into the show's mythology rather than wedged in at the end. The film packed in demogorgons and Easter eggs for diehard fans.
It launched on June 22, 2022, ahead of volume 2's July 1 debut, with a large retail presence in stores like Best Buy and a heavy social and digital focus worldwide.
Why it lands
The plot makes the camera the hero: the reveal literally cannot happen without the low-light feature being sold.
Directing talent from prestige television signalled fan service, not an ad break.
Hitching the launch to volume 2's return gave the film a date fans were already circling.
What you can take
Demo the feature inside the fiction: if only your product could have captured the monster, the crossover sells the phone instead of interrupting the show.
Since then
No performance figures are reported in the source, which frames the film as one beat in Samsung and Netflix's ongoing collaboration.
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