Samsung Maestros Academy – The Future of Made in Italy with Samsung and Leo Burnett

Italian craftsmanship has long been considered a renowned art form. Now, in a time when younger generations are gravitating to smartphones rather than toolboxes, expertise is only reminiscent of a bygone era. With the help of Leo Burnett Milan, Samsung created the first-ever digital conservatory called Maestros Academy to foster the next generation of Italian artisans in order to preserve “Made In Italy” excellences. 

To bring to life the Samsung strategic role of “enabler” in people’s life, we looked at the current social situation in Italy: the disappearance of great handcrafting excellences which once brought Italy to greatness. At the same time, unemployment rate among young people is dramatically growing and younger generations are yearning for new opportunities to discover and express their potential and talent. Our idea aims to deal with this Italian paradox, reconnecting two generations, preserving the future of “Made in Italy” and fostering a new generation of Italian artisans. We want to demonstrate the great results that people and technology can achieve together.

For this reason we created Samsung Maestros Academy: the first digital and integrated platform where young talents can learn the secrets of “Made in Italy” masters, through every kind of smart-device, inspiring the youngest to preserve and innovate the greatest Italian heritage.

The idea of Samsung Maestros Academy was spread on digital channels (FB, Italian newspapers’ and lifestyle magazines websites, Confartigianato’s channels, LinkedIn, Twitter) to join the primary target of the initiative, digital natives, and drive them to the main platform, accessible from every consumer’s electronic device, such as smartphone, tablets, laptops and Smart-TV. The engagement platform consist in more than 40 video-lessons, full of invaluable ancient secrets, in-depth materials and live-interactive lessons, featured even on outdoor and digital-billboards in the major Italian squares, such as Duomo Square in Milan. A technology-enabled connection between two generations, that inspired Discovery Italia channels to produce a 12 episodes TV-series, telling our students’ best success, spread even thanks to Online and mobile TV channels platforms (Realtime.it, DMax.it, Discovery Italia digital platform). The project gained spontaneous echo on national newspapers, magazine and Tv-programs (Piazza Pulita) generating conversation even in the major Italian University.

Samsung Maestros Academy generated a great conversation on newspapers, social media and TV-programs, with more than 6 million TV-viewers, 1 million Youtube-views in few days, 4.5 million FB-users reached and 30 million media impressions -in Italy alone- becoming a big topic even in universities including “Università commerciale Luigi Bocconi”, “Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore” in Milan, IED, “Università degli studi di Roma Tor Vergata” and even by Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.Thanks to an extensive network of touchpoints people learnt ancient crafts through every smart-device,empowering consumer-awareness on product-features and brand reputation.

During interactive-lessons, users asked very specific questions, proving a remarkable high user-engagement. Almost the 50% of live-lessons participants asked the Maestros to become an apprentice, exceeding the available positions by 300% on average. Maestros’ students produced with great success innovative design-items, inspiring even more young talents to preserve and innovate the greatest Italian heritage. After Maestro Pelizzoli’s course, Alice created a truly innovative bike, showcased with great success during the Milan Design Week event. Marina together with Maestro Siniscalchi tailored a shirt, featured on an important Italian newspaper, triggering even the curiosity of GQ. Anna and Valerio crafted a bag, immediately displayed by the prestigious “Flow” shop in Florence.The results achieved by many other students generated over 30 million media-impressions and reaching 4.5 million FB-users, on Italian market alone.

After few months, a student with her Maestro created Samsung Smart-Bike, the first safe-bicycle that protects the rider with its built-in smart-components, automatically activated through a Samsung smartphone. A responsive “safety-environment” that detects ambient-conditions and protects the driver in real-time. A concrete solution for the problem of bikes being the most “unsafe” way of moving in Italy and a real help to break the young people’s barrier with using appropriate safety-equipment.

The idea was to control a fixed-bike and its built-in smart components with a Samsung smartphone and a dedicated app, allowing the automatic control of four laser-beams, a safety-camera a GPS-tracking system, offering innovative safety-features. The first engineered bike and its paired app were presented to one of the greatest design fairs in the world: the Milan Design Week, with the endorsement of EXPO2015 representative of Urban Mobility capturing the interest of important journalists. Alice’s idea has been taken under consideration for applications according to EXPO scenarios, after being recognized as a big step-forward for urban-safety and sustainability.

Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett Italy

Executive Creative Directors: Francesco Bozza, Alessandro Antonini

Creative Director: Christopher Jones, Anna Meneguzzo, Cristiano Tonnarelli

Digital Creative Director: Paolo Boccardi

Copywriter: Alice Jasmine Crippa

Art Director: Alessia Casini, Gianluca Ignazzi

Creative Team: Cristina Bissanti, Felipe Iglesias, Alberto Lot, Lia Paganini

Project Manager: Andrea Castiglioni, Francesco Loprete

Producer: Riccardo Biancorosso, Gaia Fusaro

Art Buyer: Giada Cioffi

PR Coordinator: Maria Teresa Genovese

Managing Director: Niccolo Arletti

Brand Leader: Elena Korzhenevich

Account Supervisor: Luca Ruspini

Account Manager: Federica Giacomotti

Technical Director: Gianluca Mori

Production House: Magnolia