Samsung is launching the ‘Gear S3 World Choir’ event, which sees 24 choirs from 24 different countries performing every day from December 1st through December 24th on the UK’s first ‘biometric stage’, powered by the Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch.

The choirs will perform at London’s famous Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus to celebrate the Gear S3 smartwatch.

London-based choirs made up of people from 24 countries, from Ireland to Bangladesh, will take to the stage each day between 1st and 24th December, forming the Gear S3 World Choir, bringing to life festive songs from around the globe.

The choirs will include: Les Fauristes Chamber Choir, the only French choir in London; the LOL Choir from Latin America; the Reggae Choir from Jamaica; and The Chopsticks Choral Society from China.

The ‘Gear S3 World Choir’ event was devised by agency Cheil London to capture the cultural heartbeat of the UK capital this Christmas. It takes place on a high-tech biometric stage that measures the heartbeat, movements and even calories burnt of each choir in real time as they perform, via the new Gear S3 smartwatch.

A select number of choristers from each performance will wear a Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch that will collect live biometric data, which will be turned into stunning real time visuals on the eight giant screens built into the stage, showing the power music has on people’s health and wellbeing. The choir’s heart rate, calories burnt and movements will be presented as a live data visualisation, created with Oscar-winning VFX studio Framestore.

Framestore Labs designed and developed the real-time reactive system powering the stage’s screens, and the stunning graphical outputs of the choirs’ biometric and audio data.  The Framestore Labs team, led by Global Head of Creative Robin Carlisle, built a string of applications to manage the chain of events involved in Samsung’s World Choir activation, incorporating live data drawn from the Gear S3 watches worn by the choristers as well as audio gathered from the stage’s microphones. The custom network generates bespoke real-time data visualisations for the duration of the choirs’ performances.

Caitlin Ryan, Executive Creative Director of Cheil London, said: “I am so excited about this project because it marks the start of a journey for Cheil London. A journey where we explore what happens when creativity and technology collide to create transformational branded experiences.   It is also a reminder that technology is not something cold and frightening and data is actually just the footprints that humans leave behind.  And this can be very beautiful.”

There will also be experiential activity taking place on site to provide visitors with Samsung product demonstrations.

The event will be running between 1.00pm and 8.00pm Monday to Saturday and from 11.00am to 6.00pm on Sundays. On Christmas Eve it will be open between 9.00am – 4.00pm.

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Sense London, the integrated and experiential agency, has poached Cannes Award-winning Creative Director Andy Day to lead the company’s expanding creative department.

Day brings 20 years’ experience to the role across a wide range of sectors and disciplines at both traditional and non-traditional agencies.

Day joins Sense from Cheil UK where he was a Creative Director and one of the creative team responsible for We Are David Bailey, the company’s Cannes Gold winning campaign for Samsung. He also led design on Cheil’s most recent Cannes success RE:Shakespeare, which picked up awards in both the UX and digital craft categories. Previous to Cheil, Day held senior creative roles at integrated agencies Draftfcb and Joshua and independent planning shop Naked Communications.

“I’m incredibly excited to take up this new challenge with Sense,” said Day. “Engaging consumers in the real world is an increasingly important part of brand thinking globally and Sense is pushing the boundaries and setting the agenda in this area. This thinking demands an increasingly creative and integrated multi-channel approach. I’m looking forward to helping Sense further shape their offer providing real solutions that connect people to brands in powerful and memorable ways.”

Sally McLaren, Sense Board Director, said of Day’s appointment: “We’re excited to have Andy on board. He brings a depth of experience across both creative and design that strengthens our creative offer, further bolstering our ability to respond to client briefs in new and challenging ways. It further shows our intent to help our clients connect more deeply and purposefully with their audiences through our ‘real world’ creative thinking model.”

Sense London is an award-winning brand experience agency that specialises in helping brands cross the divide between digital, advertising and the real world, creating authentic communications across the marketing spectrum. It manages all aspects of campaigns from strategy through creative and execution to staffing and evaluation.

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Samsung Electronics UK’s immersive Galaxy Studio space at Westfield London has attracted more than 330,000 visitors since opening on March 11^th 2016, the company has revealed.

The interactive experience, created for Samsung by advertising and experiential agency Cheil UK, saw Samsung take over The Atrium of the iconic shopping centre to give customers the chance to get hands on with Samsung’s latest innovative products, including its new Galaxy S7 phones, the Gear 360 camera, Gear VR headset and Samsung’s return to Windows computing, the TabPro S.

The installation is split across a number of immersive zones, including a Virtual Reality theatre compete with vibrating seats which allows people to experience skiing, ski-jumping or a VR rollercoaster.

On arrival at the studio, customers are handed a unique mission card which allows them to collect stamps in ‘the cube,’ an interactive zone where they can get hands-on with the S7 and S7 edge, Gear 360, Gear VR, Gear S2 and TabPro S. Once customers have collected all their stamps, they can trade their card in for entry to the VR Theatre; they are then automatically entered into a daily prize draw, with a chance of winning a Gear VR headset from Monday to Friday and an S7 on weekends.

Conor Pierce, Vice President of IT & Mobile, Samsung UK and Ireland, says: “There has been phenomenal interest and demand for the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge since we launched both devices and we are delighted to be at Westfield London, introducing our latest technologies to customers and showcasing the power of immersive experiences.”

Myf Ryan, Chief Marketing Officer, Westfield UK & Europe, adds: “Technology is at the forefront of today’s retail experience and as it evolves, so too does the environment we shop in and the experience the customer seeks. A recent report launched by Westfield, How We Shop Now: What’s Next, predicts that 51% of Londoners would like to use new technologies, such as virtual reality headsets, with 39% wanting enhanced assistance to transport them to a virtual setting to better understand a product. Samsung’s Galaxy Studio space takes the virtual reality trip to the next level, and the sheer volume of Westfield shoppers who have already taken part shows the appetite for this type of immersive experience in showcasing a new product. We are delighted to be able to host this thrilling experience at Westfield London and have no doubt they will involve hundreds of thousands of visitors throughout the run of the event.”

The Galaxy Studio is open until April 10th 2016 at The Atrium, Westfield White City.

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Cheil Worldwide is consolidating its entire global retail resource under a single banner, Cheil Retail.

The new unit will be led by Simon Hathaway as the Global Chief Retail Officer. Hathaway, who joined Cheil in 2012, will head a team of 1,500 people across 52 offices in 43 markets.

Cheil Retail will work across both traditional retail and ecommerce, offering omni-channel solutions for clients.

The move recognises the importance that clients place on retail and their desire to work with specialists. Cheil Retail’s offering will include digital solutions, retail operations, data and analytics, store design and build, shopper-marketing and brand activation.

Cheil Retail’s launch aims to build on Cheil’s strong reputation in the sector, through work including the famous virtual store in a Seoul subway for Tesco Homeplus, mobile innovation with South Korea’s biggest retailer Emart, and the worldwide roll out of Samsung’s presence in retail.

Cheil leadership will work closely with Cheil Retail; the new specialism will also be partnering with the network’s other affiliate brands including The Barbarian Group, iris Worldwide and Cheil PengTai.

Daiki Lim, the Cheil Worldwide CEO & President, says: “Cheil Worldwide was born of the Eastern tech revolution and today we are a dynamic collaboration of specialisms, purpose-built for change. Retail is an industry that is experiencing huge change and clients are demanding specialist agencies. We’ve built an enviable global capability and our work in stores and ecommerce speaks for itself. The time is right to launch Cheil Retail as part of the ‘Network built for Now’”.

Simon Hathaway adds: “Today people expect retail to be everywhere – instant and personal – and we have brought together the skills, experience and creativity to deliver against the huge opportunities and challenges that brings for retailers and brands. I am looking forward to partnering with retailers and brands who are turning away from legacy networks and demanding specialists that can deliver solutions for the fast changing world of shopping.”

The Cheil Global Network unites specialisms in brand communications, retail, innovation, social and design and includes Cheil, The Barbarian Group, BMB, Bravo Asia, iris, McKinney, and One Agency.

Clients include Samsung, Absolut, Adidas, Etihad, GE, Google, Hyundai, Lego, Microsoft, Mini, Nestle and Shell.

Cheil is a subsidiary of the Samsung Group.

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Matt Pye, the Chief Operating Officer at Cheil UK, is leaving the agency after five years.
Pye’s departure comes soon after the appointment of Paul Hammersley as Group Chief Executive of Cheil UK in September. Cheil UK has gone through major management changes over the past year, with Malcolm Poynton joining as Global Chief Creative Officer and Catherine Davis as Chief Growth Officer.
Pye plans to take a short break “before looking for a new challenge”, according to a statement from Cheil.
Pye joined the agency as the Managing Director in January 2011 and was responsible for transforming it from its roots as a Samsung-based business into a company with a broad roster of clients including Coca-Cola, Absolut, Pernod Ricard and Descente.
In 2013, Pye was promoted to Chief Operating Officer and oversaw Cheil’s move to new headquarters in Southwark.
Paul Hammersley, the Group Chief Executive of Cheil UK, says: “Matt has played a huge part in helping transform Cheil to the agency it is today and I’d like to thank him for that. While we’ll miss him, we look forward to carrying on his good work.”
Before joining Cheil UK, Pye was a managing partner at Ogilvy & Mather. He also worked at Partners BDDH and started his career at Lowe Howard-Spink.
Matt Pye said: “I’ve had a wonderful time and, hopefully, I’ve left the agency in a far better position that when I arrived. It’s time for the next chapter and, with Paul at the helm, I’m certain the future is bright. I’m off for a little lie down followed by a fresh challenge.”

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