Case Study: Xiaomi POCOPHONE F1 Korea Launch — A Press Conference Built Around a Reveal
Client: Xiaomi
Event: POCOPHONE F1 Korea launch press conference
Date: October 29, 2018
Audience: ~250 attendees, Korean press
Scope: Corporate event planning & operation, end to end
The brief
Xiaomi's POCOPHONE F1 had already caused a sensation abroad for its value for money. For its Korean debut, Xiaomi needed a press conference that would translate that buzz into domestic headlines — an event Korean journalists would find worth writing about, not just attending.
The challenge
Press conferences are the most formulaic format in corporate events: a stage, a deck, a demo table. Journalists sit through dozens a year, and coverage reflects that fatigue. For a value-focused challenger brand entering a market dominated by domestic giants, the event itself had to carry news value — the product's "surprise" positioning had to be something the room physically felt.
Our approach
Stage the anticipation. From the moment attendees entered, dazzling lighting effects inside the press hall built anticipation toward the POCOPHONE F1's unveiling — the room was primed before a single slide was shown.
Engineer a reveal, not a segue. After the official press conference, the photo wall in the venue lobby split open — a hidden mechanism unveiling a hands-on display zone where journalists could try the POCOPHONE F1 for themselves. The transition from presentation to product was itself a moment worth photographing.
Keep the surprise running. The event was designed to deliver surprises throughout rather than front-load a single moment, so the story journalists carried out was the experience, not just the spec sheet.
The result
A successful launch press conference that gave roughly 250 Korean journalists a product story told through experience — anticipation, reveal, hands-on — rather than presentation alone. It remains a reference for how a challenger brand enters a crowded market: make the event itself part of the news.
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