Global Ads Spotlight: Samsung turned cart quitters into gold mines in one bold move
In a post-Black Friday twist, Samsung Brazil turned shopping cart graveyards into gold mines with a single well-timed email. The "Throwback Deals" campaign didn't just recover lost sales - it crushed expectations and snagged a Cannes Lions Gold. Read and watch in our Global Ads Spotlight column.
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Black Friday is supposed to be a sales bonanza. But in 2023, Samsung Brazil found itself nursing a case of ecommerce regret.
Despite the hype, its Black Friday sales were lukewarm. But instead of doubling down on traditional promotions, Samsung flipped the script with MRM Brazil - by targeting the people who almost brough something and then... didn't.
Turns out, 80% of online shoppers in Brazil abandon their carts. Samsung's data team instead of panicking, pounced.
They dug through two years of cart history and zeroed in on a massive yet overlooked group - 735,000 customers who had left items behind. Instead of writing them off, Samsung treated them like VIPs.
Enter the "Throwback Deals" campaign - a clever name with a smarter strategy. One single day after Black Friday, Samsung sent a personalized email to every cart abandoner.
The hook? "Am I in your cart for a year because I suck?"
That one email - just one - raked in over R$ 3.5 million (roughly USD $700,000) in a week. That's a 318% jump in sales, and a jaw-dropping 5145% ROI.
No influencers, no massive ad spend, no drawn-out campaign. Just pure behavioural insight, executed with surgical precision.
Samsung's 'Throwback Deals' didn't just make the sales charts sing.
The campaign earned the Gold Lion at the Cannes Creative Commerce Lions, proving that sometimes, the smartest ads don't look like ads at all. They're the right message, to the right people, at the exact right time.
The kicker? Samsung has now made "Throwback Deals" a permanent fixture in its sales playbook. If it worked once, you can bet it'll work again - especially when it's built on behavioural gold.
