Tech Goes Green | 2021

Designers: Bloomberg Media Studios, New York, New York, USA
Client: Samsung Electronics, Gyeonggi-d, Seoul, South Korea

Samsung’s sustainable product initiatives are the focus of the “Tech Goes Green” campaign, which employed a traditional visual technique—stop-motion animation—to create four videos that feature the company’s environmental values and its efficient appliances that reduce energy use and waste.

Bloomberg Media Studios collaborated with 1stAveMachine Buenos Aires to develop the videos, which utilized recycled materials alongside digital elements to illustrate Samsung’s innovative solutions.

The goal was to convey Samsung’s sustainable values while featuring the new products that embody these values. Stop-motion animation—a familiar, accessible technique—was chosen to animate the human characters, their pets and the products in the whimsical 30-second clips. 

The characters and scenes were first developed as sketches, and then animated models were developed and brought to life digitally. The characters, seen in home surroundings incorporating digital elements, are crafted of wood and convey an organic feeling.

“Samsung creates durable home appliances for sustainable use,” explains the “Eco Design at Home” video, which features Samsung’s Bespoke modular refrigerator that can be expanded to “give the appliance a longer lifespan by allowing units to be added as a family grows.” Samsung’s washer “that saves energy by calculating just the right amount of detergent needed” is also featured.

A Chip With a Conscience” features Samsung’s groundbreaking low-power memory chips that can reduce heat and carbon emissions from data centers and have huge potential to reduce energy use worldwide.

“Outside the Box” explains that “Samsung TVs arrive in eco-packaging, with minimal use of stickers and colored ink, making upcycling simpler,” and cleverly demonstrates how “Consumers can follow directions to transform their TV boxes into useful household items,” such as a magazine rack, shelf or even a cathouse. These furniture projects, smoothly animated in the video, can be built in minutes and help keep corrugated cardboard out of landfills. Samsung’s solar-powered TV remote, made of recycled plastic, is also featured.

“Giving New Life to Old Smartphones” asks, “What happens to the devices that get left behind?” Samsung’s Galaxy Upcycling program turns old Galaxy smartphones into tools ranging from a baby monitor to an AI-enabled medical device—the EYELIKE Fundus Camera, which is being used to help diagnose eye diseases.

The campaign’s broad distribution across the Bloomberg media ecosystem resulted in over 51 million video views across all placements, plus over 65 million video views across QuickTake Twitter placements, from July through November 2021, with a 59.4% video completion rate on page and a 56.78% video completion rate in ad units.