Samsung Flipvertising Turns Ad Avoidance Into a Galaxy Z Flip4 Hunt
Samsung's Flipvertising campaign is a digital and experiential media initiative created by CHEP Network in New Zealand and Australia in 2023 that hid a free Galaxy Z Flip4 inside a deliberately elusive YouTube pre-roll ad, challenging ad-sceptical Gen Z consumers to reverse-engineer the platform's targeting algorithm to find and win it.
The campaign launched in June 2023 as a case study publication, with the underlying Galaxy Z Flip4 activity originating in Australia in September 2022, according to Campaign Asia. In New Zealand, Flipvertising operated at the intersection of content, digital, and experiential media, positioning Samsung not as an interrupter but as a prize hidden inside the very infrastructure audiences work hardest to avoid. The mechanic was elegantly self-defeating in the best possible sense: to find the ad, a participant had to search repeatedly for Galaxy Z Flip4 content, and in doing so, they rewrote their own YouTube algorithm to surface an unending stream of organic, unsponsored Samsung reviews, unboxings, comparisons, and technical breakdowns — content Samsung did not pay for and could not have scripted more favourably itself.
The objectives were threefold. First, Samsung and CHEP Network sought to reach a Gen Z audience in a market — New Zealand and its broader trans-Tasman neighbour Australia — where personalised advertising is widely regarded as intrusive rather than helpful. Second, the campaign aimed to drive genuine consideration for the Galaxy Z Flip4 through trusted, peer-generated content rather than brand messaging. Third, it sought to reframe the algorithm itself as a tool of empowerment rather than surveillance. The campaign earned a Clapboard Score of 92/100, reflecting its exceptional strategic ambition, creative originality, and measurable commercial impact.
Gen Z consumers regard personalised advertising as an invasion of privacy. That single insight, observed and acted upon by CHEP Network, became the strategic foundation for Flipvertising and inverted the conventional logic of performance media entirely.
Rather than attempting to reach a resistant audience through increased frequency or more sophisticated targeting overlays — the approach competitors including Apple, whose iPhone 14 series was in market at the same time, and Google's own Pixel 7 launch deployed — Samsung chose to make its targeting mechanism the object of desire. According to Contagious, the campaign generated a 133% higher search volume than the next-best Samsung Galaxy Z Flip launch, which is a direct measure of how thoroughly the scavenger-hunt mechanic converted avoidance behaviour into active pursuit.
The strategic context matters. According to IDC, global smartphone shipments totalled approximately 1.166 billion units in 2023, a year-on-year decline of around 3.2%, with Samsung holding a 19.4% share and Apple leading at 20.1%. In a contracting global market, incremental volume gains required more than product specification superiority. In the New Zealand and Australian electronics and technology categories, where premium foldable smartphones occupy a narrow but high-value segment, earning consideration from a sceptical younger cohort demanded a fundamentally different creative strategy. Gavin McLeod, Chief Creative Officer at CHEP Network, stated that the campaign's intent was "to do something different that disrupts the market and positions Samsung at the forefront of innovation." Flipvertising delivered precisely that by treating the retargeting pool not as an advertiser's asset but as a consumer's reward.
CHEP Network built Flipvertising around a creative principle with no direct precedent in digital advertising: the medium was not YouTube, it was YouTube's recommendation algorithm itself. The execution required CHEP Network to collaborate directly with Google's own technologists to understand and deliberately exploit the mechanics of ad serving and retargeting pools in ways that, according to reporting by Contagious, had Google's own engineers reassessing standard assumptions about how the system could be used.
Hansen Ding, a performance media specialist at CHEP Network, was identified by the agency as integral to the creative process, bringing deep technical expertise to the challenge of making a YouTube pre-roll simultaneously real, winnable, and structurally elusive. The Sweetshop Sydney served as production partner on the campaign, as reported by Campaign Asia, providing the production infrastructure needed to execute a piece of content designed to function as both an advertisement and a mechanism. The creative output — the pre-roll itself — was deliberately understated in its visual language, since its power resided not in production spectacle but in its inaccessibility and the participatory logic it initiated.
The experiential layer of Flipvertising was its most sophisticated dimension. Every search a participant conducted to locate the hidden ad recalibrated their personal algorithm, flooding their YouTube environment with authentic, creator-produced Galaxy Z Flip4 content. Samsung paid for none of this secondary content, yet it constituted the primary consideration-building touchpoint for each participant. According to Contagious, this mechanic reframed retargeting from a tool of brand surveillance into a mechanism of opt-in, self-directed discovery — a creative recontextualisation of infrastructure that sits at the frontier of what digital campaign craft can achieve.
Samsung Flipvertising produced results that are, by any standard measure of digital campaign performance, exceptional. According to campaign materials cited by Contagious and corroborated across award submissions, the campaign delivered engagement 600% higher than the industry average and a 34% increase in Galaxy Z Flip4 sales during the campaign period. Search volume for the Galaxy Z Flip4 increased by 133% compared with the next-best Samsung Z Flip product launch, according to Contagious — a metric that directly reflects the algorithmic participation mechanic at the heart of the campaign.
The awards record is equally striking. At Cannes Lions 2023, Flipvertising won the Grand Prix in the Social and Influencer category and took two Silver Lions in the Direct category and a Bronze Lion in Media. At D&AD 2023, the campaign earned Wood Pencils in both Digital — Search and Display and Media — Direct, according to D&AD records. At Spikes Asia 2023, it won Grand Prix awards in both the Direct and Creative Data categories, per Spikes Asia. Contagious described the campaign as a benchmark in privacy-aware, participation-driven advertising.
Clapboard rates Flipvertising at 92/100. The score reflects a campaign that does not merely use digital infrastructure cleverly but fundamentally reconceives the relationship between brand, platform, and consumer — achieving commercial outcomes, cultural resonance, and category-defining creative ambition simultaneously. It is a high-water mark for Samsung's electronic devices marketing in the New Zealand and Australian markets and a durable reference point for the electronics and technology advertising sector globally.
Samsung Flipvertising is a 2023 digital campaign by CHEP Network that hid a free Galaxy Z Flip4 inside a nearly unfindable YouTube pre-roll ad. Participants searching for the ad rewrote their own algorithms, surfacing organic Samsung reviews and content. The mechanic turned ad avoidance into active brand participation across New Zealand and Australia.
Samsung Flipvertising won the Grand Prix in the Social and Influencer category at Cannes Lions 2023. It also received two Silver Lions in the Direct category and a Bronze Lion in Media. Additionally, it won Grand Prix awards at Spikes Asia 2023 in both the Direct and Creative Data categories, and Wood Pencils at D&AD 2023.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 sales increased by 34% during the Flipvertising campaign period, according to campaign materials cited by Contagious. Engagement ran 600% above the industry average, and search volume for the Flip4 rose 133% compared with the next-best Samsung Z Flip launch, demonstrating strong commercial and behavioural impact across the target market.
CHEP Network created Flipvertising for Samsung, with The Sweetshop Sydney as production partner. Hansen Ding, a performance media specialist at CHEP Network, was central to the creative process. Chief Creative Officer Gavin McLeod stated the campaign aimed to disrupt the market and position Samsung at the forefront of innovation in electronic devices advertising.
Samsung Flipvertising targeted Gen Z because that cohort regards personalised advertising as a privacy intrusion. By making the targeting algorithm the object of a scavenger hunt rather than a surveillance tool, CHEP Network converted avoidance into participation. The approach was designed for the New Zealand and Australian electronics and technology markets where Gen Z scepticism toward digital advertising is pronounced.
Samsung Flipvertising holds a Clapboard Score of 92 out of 100. The Clapboard Score evaluates advertising work across strategic ambition, creative originality, and measurable commercial impact. Flipvertising's score reflects its category-defining reconception of digital targeting, its verified sales and engagement results, and its record of recognition at Cannes Lions, D&AD, and Spikes Asia 2023.
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