Gaming is big business; from the volume of coverage on the metaverse, to the social glue gaming provided in the midst of lockdown,  in 2022 smart brands recognise that gaming simply cannot be ignored.

With this growth in mind to celebrate the launch of Samsung Electronics’ System LSI Business, BBH London has helped to create a fitting action-packed, CGI-rich 60-second film.  The film promotes Samsung’s new Exynos 2200 ’next generation’ mobile processor, which will bring high-quality, deeply immersive gaming experiences to mobile phones. Experiences previously accessible only via a game console.

The film titled, ‘The Marketplace’ opens in a metaphorical mobile game market intended to be a visual metaphor for an online app store. Audiences follow a female character as she passes by an array of street vendors trying to sell her poor-quality, heavily-pixelated 8-bit computing-style fruits and weapons before she is lured away down an alleyway by an Alice-in-Wonderland-inspired white rabbit. Here she finds an underground black market populated by darker characters and vendors trading guns and weapons all of which are in full HD quality. The film ends with the line: ‘Playtime is over’.

Until now, many believe that high-quality immersive gaming experiences were restricted to console-based gameplay but Exynos 2200 aims to revolutionize the quality, speed, and sophistication of mobile games.

“We wanted to implicitly express how the Exynos 2200 processor will bring differentiated gaming experience on mobile, in a short condensed fashion. We are very excited to see BBH’s creativity come to life in this adventurous hero film, and believe this project may be a big milestone that changes the course of how we promote semiconductor products in the future.” said Changwan Kim, Brand Manager at Samsung Electronics.

The brief for the ad was to drive anticipation and excitement among keen gamers ahead of the launch of the first phones containing the new mobile processor, which features a state-of-the art mobile graphics processing unit developed by Samsung in partnership with AMD. The starting point was the idea that the new GPU would now make mobile gaming serious which is what inspired the ‘Playtime is over’ campaign theme and strapline. 

“This was a dream brief from our partners at Samsung. To launch a new processing unit, targeted at hardcore gamers is an incredible opportunity. Together, we’ve constructed an incredible, alternate universe full of rich detail, dangerous characters and even more dangerous weapons. There’s even a few additional details hidden in there to reward the most eagle-eyed gamers” explained Stu Royall, Creative Director at BBH.

‘The Marketplace’ was directed by film and  European commercials director (and gamer) Matthijs Van Heijningen. The film will run from January 18 until the end of February across YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, Reddit and TikTok. The campaign will be supported by cross-platform executions inspired by the creative concept and sharing the ‘Playtime is over’ theme, executed by Cheil Pengtai.