Le Thuc Hien - s3413036 COMM2491 Page With an average of 43 deaths per day, South Korea has been called the suicide capital of the world (Think With Google 2013) Therefore, despite being one of the most developed countries, it is also Asia’s unhappiest nation and ranks among the world’s lowest in “happiness index” (Korea Times 2012) Many people commit suicide by jumping from the city’s bridges, in which Mapo bridge is the most popular To decrease the number of suicide cases and bring people a more positive life attitude, Samsung Life Insurance (a subsidiary of Samsung Group) has launched a campaign called “The Bridge of Life” in September 2012 By installing lights with encouraging messages & images which interact with passerbys, the campaign’s uniqueness has touched the heart of many Koreans and as a result, the number of deaths by suicide has declined remarkably Le Thuc Hien - s3413036 COMM2491 Page A message which reads, “Do you have a problem?” Reproduced from: Campaign Brief 2013 Suiciding is a serious social issue in South Korea For 11 years consecutively, the country’s suicidal rates topped the world with 29.1 per 100 people, which means out of 10 Koreans commit suicide (Yoon 2015) Office workers suicide due to work pressure Students can’t stand stress caused by studying, school bullying and the pressure to pass the highly competitive, life-ordeath university entrance exam (Lee 2011) Elderly people suffer loneliness or poverty Each group has a different reason to give up their lives, however the target audience for this campaign is South Koreans in general because life is very stressful in Korea regardless of what field you work in Even top celebrities can’t seem to get out of this cycle Le Thuc Hien - s3413036 COMM2491 Page Family tragedy: top actress Choi Jin-sil (L), her brother - singer Choi Jin-young (M) & former husband basketball player Jo Sung-min (R) all committed suicide due to complicated problems Reproduced from: Mnet 2013 & 24h 2014 In this analysis, I will take a deeper look into A Bridge of Life’s factors that make it successful This include the channel they used - the bridge lights with messages, the interaction and feedback from people To be specific, Samsung Life Insurance focused on using an offline channel instead of an online one They put on LED lights with encouraging life messages such as “How have you been?”, “What is troubling you?” or “Why don’t we just forget everything and watch a movie?” (Samsung Village 2013) Pictures of the precious moments of life like the photo of a newborn child or an elderly woman smiling, are also included These lights are designed to interact with people’s eyes they will automatically turn themselves on when people look or blink at them (Think With Google 2013) Then they are installed on the top of Mapo bridge’s barriers in a height equal to our eyesight Therefore, when people begin walking Le Thuc Hien - s3413036 COMM2491 Page from one end, a list of messages automatically glows when they turn their eyes at the lights This makes people feel as if the bridge is “talking” to them and sympathizing with their difficulties The pictures are shown at the last lights, and finally at the bridge’s other end there is a statue of a men comforting his stressed friend with the message “Human, Love” as these two words are pronounced similarly in Korean (Saram for human and sarang for love) “Don’t be sad, things’ll be okay.” Reproduced from: Digital Mike 2013 It could be seen that this campaign succeeded thanks to its visual elements With short, simple and encouraging messages that speak directly to people’s minds, Samsung has successfuly built a “way of hope” on the Mapo bridge which was famous for having the highest death tolls of suicide (Samsung Village 2013) The lights which enlighten the bridge at dark night have actually served as a metaphor Le Thuc Hien - s3413036 COMM2491 Page they turned Mapo from being the “Bridge of Death” (dark) to the “Bridge of Life” (light) The touching photos of the precious life moments, which showed up after the message “Your best moments in life are yet to come” also played an important role A newborn child symbols a new life or new start (What To Expect n.d.) A smiling elderly woman boosts a positive feeling inside people’s minds, like “even an old woman find life happy, why don’t I feel that way too?” At the bridge’s other end, a statue of two men with one comforting another is placed after all the messages As aforementioned, Samsung used the pun in Korean language to display the message “Human, Love” The pun, despite being a small factor, contributes to the overall success of the campaign as well Due to the similarity in pronunciation between the words “human” and “love”, people will figure out these two factors always accompany each other They will understand that they are never alone - there is always someone who will listen to their problem, comfort them and give them solutions Overall, the campaign has excellent visual elements, but it could’ve been better if audio is included (Kelley & Serb 1962) - for instance, these messages are also recorded and will play when people touch the lights This will surely boost the effects of the communication process between “the bridge” and depressed people Le Thuc Hien - s3413036 COMM2491 Page “Human, Love” Reproduced from: Samsung Life Insurance 2013 Samsung has made a smart use of its advantage in high technology The lighting of the messages when people look or blink at them makes an impressive interaction process that sparks people’s minds and their curiosity Along with the heart-warming messages, these interactive lights directly communicate with people’s emotions The results were great - lots of people complimented the campaign, news inside and outside Korea reported about it, the suicide death toll dropped by 7% and Samsung was encouraged to use the same model on other bridges in Korea as well (Samsung Life Insurance 2013) Le Thuc Hien - s3413036 COMM2491 Page The lighting messages interact very well with people Reproduced from: Campaign Brief 2013 Overall, “The Bridge of Life” has been a successful campaign in attempt to ease the suicide crisis in Korea by creating a “talking” bridge who sympathizes with people’s problems Although it looks like a PR campaign with Samsung doing its CSR, the seriousness of the issue, the broadness of the target audience and the social effects brought by the campaign made it enough to be considered a social marketing campaign in my opinion However since the campaign focuses on an offline channel, it somehow lacks international popularity despite being on the news and having a summary video A social media marketing campaign, in particular viral marketing (Rohrbacher 2000), will be the best solution Since suicide is a hot issue in many other countries as well (Insel 2014), making the campaign viral will really gain it more attention Word count: 996 (excluding in-text citations) Le Thuc Hien - s3413036 COMM2491 Page REFERENCES Campaign Brief 2013, ‘Cheil Worldwide tackles suicide issue in Korea with The Bridge of Life, Bridge of Healing’, image, Campaign Brief Asia, 06 February, viewed 11 November 2015, ; Campaign Brief Asia 2013, ‘Cheil Worldwide Seoul scores Golds for Samsung Life Insurance's Bridge of Life at the 28th London International Awards’, image, Campaign Brief Asia, November, viewed 15 November 2015, ; Digital Mike n.d., ‘Samsung bridging life to people’, image, Digital Mike, 25 August, viewed 15 November 2015, ; Insel, T 2014, ‘Suicide: a Global Issue’, NIH, September, viewed 15 November 2015, ; Kelley, W & Serb, T 1962, ‘Audio-Visual aids and equipment’, Planning.org, viewed 11 November 2015, ; Korea Times 2012, ‘Korea ranks among the worlds’ lowest in ‘happiness index’ ‘, Korea Times, 10 July, viewed 15 November 2015, ; Lee, J 2013, ‘South Korean students' 'year of hell' culminates with exams day’, CNN, 13 November, viewed 11 November 2015, ; Rohrbacher, B 2000, ‘The Power of Viral Marketing’, ClickZ, November, viewed 15 November 2015, ; Le Thuc Hien - s3413036 COMM2491 Page Samsung Life Insurances 2013, ‘'The Bridge of life' by Samsung Life Insurance (삼 삼삼삼 bridge of life ver Eng)’, image & information, Youtube, 15 February, viewed 11 November 2015, ; Samsung Village 2013, ‘Bridge of Life Reminds You of the Good in Life’, Samsung Village, 25 June, viewed 11 November 2015, ; Think With Google 2013, ‘Bridge of Life: A bridge notorious for suicide transformed into a bridge of hope’, Think With Google, viewed 15 November 2015, ; What To Expect n.d., ‘Birth Symbols by Month: Zodiac, Birthstone, Flower and Tree’, What To Expect, viewed 15 November 2015, ; Le Thuc Hien - s3413036 COMM2491 Page 10 ... in “happiness index” (Korea Times 2012) Many people commit suicide by jumping from the city’s bridges, in which Mapo bridge is the most popular To decrease the number of suicide cases and bring... a social marketing campaign in my opinion However since the campaign focuses on an offline channel, it somehow lacks international popularity despite being on the news and having a summary video... media marketing campaign, in particular viral marketing (Rohrbacher 2000), will be the best solution Since suicide is a hot issue in many other countries as well (Insel 2014), making the campaign