All Eyes On The S4
View the results- Brand
- Samsung
- Year
- 2013
- Objective
- Product Launch
- Industry
- Tech & Telecom
- Mechanic
- Other
- Platform
- Installation
- With
- HEIMAT
- With
- Perfect Fools
Objective
Swisscom needed to launch Samsung's new Galaxy S4 in Switzerland and generate mass reach through earned media rather than paid buys alone. The brief called for spotlighting one specific feature, Smart Pause — the phone's ability to sense when someone is actually looking at its screen — and doing it in a way that made the feature itself the whole point of the stunt.
Solution
Passers-by at Zurich's main train station found a real Galaxy S4 built into a street billboard, daring anyone brave enough to sit or stand in front of it and hold their gaze on the screen for a full hour — no phone, no distractions, no looking away. The S4's own Smart Pause sensor did the judging: break eye contact and the game was over on the spot. While each player stared, the crew escalated the chaos around them — a hot-dog stand catching fire, a street musician getting in their face, a couple staging a fight, barking police dogs, stunt riders on motorcycles, even Swiss celebrities wandering through. Two cameras streamed it all live to the all-eyes-on-s4.ch microsite and onto banner ads on major news sites, and friends watching from home could send a Twitter or Instagram message straight onto the screen the player was staring at, to cheer them on or throw them off. Hold the full 60 minutes and the phone was free to keep; give up early and the player left with a discount voucher scaled to how long they'd lasted.
Results
28 people attempted the challenge; 5 held out the full hour and won a free Galaxy S4. The recap film reached 4 million views, making it the most-watched commercial viral video in Switzerland at the time, while the live stream itself was watched roughly 1.5 million times during the event. The campaign generated over 12 million ad impressions in Switzerland, reaching an estimated one in three Swiss residents, and the microsite logged 150,000 interactions.
- 1
The game is a phygital stunt at a train-station billboard fitted with a real Samsung Galaxy S4: a passerby is invited to stare at the phone's screen without looking away for 60 minutes, and steps up to take the challenge while two cameras film the attempt.
- 2
The core rule is simple: keep eye contact with the screen. The phone's own Smart Pause gaze-detection feature decides whether the player is still looking, and any break in eye contact ends the attempt.
- 3
A countdown runs on screen showing elapsed time, and the discount the player is earning toward buying the phone grows the longer they hold their gaze.
- 4
Staged distractions escalate around the player throughout the session, from a burning hot-dog stand and a persistent busker to a fighting couple and barking police dogs, later joined by local celebrities who show up beside the player specifically to break their focus.
- 5
The attempt streams live to anyone online via a dedicated microsite and banner ads on major news portals, and viewers can push their own Twitter and Instagram messages onto the very screen the player is watching, either encouraging or distracting them.
- 6
Looking away ends the session: the player leaves with a Swisscom discount voucher scaled to how long they held their gaze, while anyone who completes the full 60 minutes wins the Galaxy S4 for free amid a public celebration at the site and online.
- 7
The same setup toured beyond its Zurich debut to Lucerne, Bern, and Lausanne over the following days.
