The Banknote Concert | dARe By Samsung

A study initiated by the National Institute for Cultural Research and Information in 2018 shows that Romanians’ participation in cultural events such as classical music is only 13% throughout the country. The remaining 87% of Romanians admit that they have never been to a classical music event.

The reasons can be countless if we take into account the huge gap between urban and rural areas in Romania, but the high cost of tickets and the limited accessibility of people from a geographical point of view are the main problems.

Thus, Samsung identified this social need and turned it into a brand opportunity, bringing the George Enescu Festival closer to everyone present in Romania through technology and the application dARe by Samsung – a locally developed app which successfully unlocks art and culture experiences.

George Enescu Festival is one of the most famous and exclusive classical music festivals in Europe. Therefore, the objectives of the campaign were to encourage the consumption of culture among the young audience and not only, to bring an educational contribution, which would break the preconceived limits of classical music: elitism, the closed circle and also, to remove physical barriers and restrictions imposed by the physical space of the concert halls, facilitating free access to all the concerts in the festival, through augmented reality.

Samsung believes a lot in the “Do what you can’t” brand initiative, so in order to access the whole country, we knew we had to find something that is present everywhere, even in the Romanian collective consciousness.

There is one place where Romanians meet Enescu on a daily basis, regardless of their financial status or their musical taste: the 5 lei banknote. Thus, we decided to transform an ignored, analogue medium – physical money – into an AR marker that would allow any Romanian to download dARe by Samsung app, scan the banknote and experience the Enescu festival through live streaming. Hence, we inaugurated something unique: the first concert in a banknote.

The “Banknote Concert” campaign managed to innovate and give access to more festival participants than ever before, while the festival gave us access to the greatest classical musicians of the moment, so Samsung took to the next level the partnership between Samsung and George Enescu Festival.

The application of dARe by Samsung recorded over 20,000 scans of the 5 lei banknote during the festival, registered an increase of 282% of the number of downloads, going from + 3,000 to + 11,000 users and last but not least, the success of this campaign was sustained by the fact that dARe by Samsung app went up on the first place among the Romanian apps from App Store / Google Play, in the first week of the campaign.

In conclusion, Samsung has taken on the mission of demonstrating that today’s technology can also be seen as a cultural tool that can create experiences that are relevant and unique to the public.

 So Samsung has moved on to its “Do What You Can’t” brand mission: to watch a prestigious classical music festival for free on a banknote.