Juke Spins Some Cool

2007 Year in Review I New Jersey

Juke. What a cool word.

The word juke originates from Gullah, the language of former West African slaves of the South Carolina and Georgia coastline. (If you have ever vacationed in Hilton Head or Sea Island, that’s Gullah country.)

The first definition of juke was, “wicked, bad, disorderly”. Over time, the word gave rise to juke joint, a roadside establishment where one could find booze, music, dancing, and maybe a prostitute out back.

In the 1930s, a newfangled record-playing device was introduced to the juke joint; the device was named the juke box − and juke has been synonymous with music ever since.

This fall, STA asked Cheil to launch a new music phone: Juke. It was the first phone in America to have a “switchblade” action when it opens.

In other words, Juke was wickedly cool. The challenge was that the communication had to juggle many balls. The brief contained multiple tasks that we needed to convey to our audience. First and foremost, we had to talk about the switchblade action. Then it was necessary to actually demonstrate this in an entertaining way. Of course, there was the obvious need to make it musical. Our final goal was to create a mnemonic device − something catchy.

Integrated teams from both interactive and traditional creative were formed to work on the project. Our focus was on the big idea; an idea that had to be translated across multiple platforms.

The integrated team of Johanna Rustia and Jeff Babson gave birth to that big idea. The inspiration came from the phone itself. We saw the phone as a marriage between the music and the movement; but the movement is what motivated us.

The result was the tagline, “A new spin on the music phone”. The core visual showed how the Juke handset mimicked a turntable arm. The phone opened and positioned itself over a traditional vinyl record, eliciting the music to play. What was great was that the creativity of the advertising focused entirely on the product.

Johanna and Jeff had conceived the idea of an Internet contest; with a working title of “Juke Box Hero”. Tommy Kane, Senior Art Director, was brought in to complete the team. Still, we had no song.

It was Kirk Heinlein, General Manager of Cheil’s Dallas office, who had the genius for the song. Kirk suggested the rock & roll standard, “Juke Box Hero” by Foreigner. It turned out to be phenomenal. None of us ever thought that such an iconic song could be Juke’s theme.

The production for the television spots was created by Framestore. The entire spot was composed digitally. Not one frame of film was shot. It was wild; we never left the office. All production was completed through the Internet and over the phone.

We created a 15-second teaser TV spot and a 30-second ad. The teaser spots mentioned Juke and Samsung 15 times in 15 seconds; and did it without being offensive. Not many spots can claim that success.

In the end, the result speaks for itself – it’s fabulous.

But I think that the best indication of the success of the Juke campaign is marked by the band Foreigner. Foreigner will proudly publicize that they were the creators of the song in the Juke commercials on their next album release. The word Juke continues to make music history.

Click here to check out Juke by Samsung website.


By Tom McManus
Creative Director of North America