Journey towards #MissionSamsung @SamsungSA Blogger Challenge Winner

Hi Guys,

It was the moment of satisfaction as well as gratefulness as Dr. Michelle announced my name as the #MissionSamsung Bloggers Challenge Grand Finale Winner. The Grand Finale was telecast live on SABC3 TV at Expresso Morning Show on 25th May 2015. The host of the show along with Dr. Michelle from Samsung was the smart and dashing Katlego Maboe @KatleGomaBoe. He surely is the coolest guy I ever met if you have seen the show you will know of this fact.

Mission Samsung Blogger Challenge was launched last year in June 2014 with a great idea which was implemented very well by Samsung, @SABloggers, Webfluential and most importantly @EpicMSLGroup. The idea was to select Top 10 bloggers for 6 challenges and introduce them to the latest Samsung Gadgets for some weeks (1-3) with some set series of tasks to be performed using the same devices. I was not amongst the top 10 chosen bloggers in the first round and really felt very bad for some days. But then after the chosen ones were given devices to review, Samsung launched a Community Challenge for other bloggers who applied and was not selected to be in the top 10. 

I immediately grabbed the opportunity as I always wanted to be a "SamsungBlogger" as similar contest was launched in India before I started blogging in 2011-2012 and I knew of some winners who used to get all the Samsung devices and gadgets to review even before it's launched in the market. I thought this to be a wonderful opportunity for me to showcase my skills. The theme of the community challenge post was to review Samsung NX300 mirrorless Smart camera. I immediately checked the Samsung website for the product and instantly fell in love with the design and capability of the camera.

On a Saturday afternoon, I sat with my laptop and started to work on the post. Ideas started flowing to my mind as I continued to write and review the device to show my relationship with the cameras I have used before. I was satisfied with the blog post and send the links to the respective parties. The results came on 7 July 2014 and I was announced the winner of the Community Challenge along with "Wild Card" entry into the finals and this amazing device called Samsung NX300 be me mines forever. I felt awesome and at the top of the world! Hurray! Also my interview was published on We blog for love.

I still wanted to participate as a Top 10 bloggers because they used to get some awesome #MissionSamsung branded stuff like tshirt, stationery, mugs, water bottles and flasks, caps etc. I tried for the next few rounds but never made it to the top 10 till the time of Challenge 5 to review Samsung Galaxy Note 4 in Feb 2015 and received #MissionSamsung tshirt, cap and flask. I felt great and did some amazing work with the post and the phone. Check it out as this post is the top 3rd post on my blog measured in pageviews and going to take 2nd position by next month and I almost thought that I will win in this category.

Finally, I started waiting for the finals to start which was scheduled to start end of April 2015 and somehow the event did started in May first week but my name was missed and it was a broken dream for me. I immediately drafted an emailed and waited for their response. They gave me 4 hours of time as a "Wild Card" entry in the finals to write the Final blog post with 20 words that needed to be incorporated. I am really grateful to Samsung and Epicmsl Group for giving me an opportunity to contest with other finalists for a chance to be in the Grand Finale.

I started writing and several themes came to my mind - one was being a lone traveler through South Africa but the other idea was able to incorporate and convince all the Samsung provided 20 keywords fully. The topic I chose for my final entry was my honeymoon to South Africa which I really loved writing about. Check it out as it helped me to be in the top 4 Grand Finalists. 

The day arrived when it was all set for the Grand Finalists to appear live on Expresso Show and I flew a day earlier to Cape Town in the evening. It was a fight amongst #Johannesburg vs #CapeTown bloggers as I was the only one from Johannesburg and rest 3 were from Cape Town. The program started and we were using Samsung S6/S6 edge devices as our buzzers. It was a series of questions and I was able to give the final answer after being tied with 2 other contestants. It was at that moment I felt so grateful to everyone and couldn't believe that finally my dream has become a reality. I am the Top blogger for #MissionSamsung Challenge 2014 and the very first one to win a grand, big and awesome 65" Curved UHD TV which will soon decorate my home. 

I am so thankful to Almighty Lord for giving me this opportunity to start my own blog and then pouring my heart out in words which works for me and the brands who loves me. I am greatly thankful to Samsung SA for making me their top blogger and I am looking forward to cover their various launch events and review their amazing products.

So this is my story which I have been working towards since the first day I saw the tweet when Samsung asked people from all major cities to look forward to a blogger challenge way back in May/June 2014. If you have big dreams in your eyes and work towards them with full dedication and commitment, you will sooner or later achieve the same. I felt great to achieve this dream of mine and now need to start dreaming of something else so big that it should not let me sleep till the time I achieve the same. 

Cheers!!!

Follow me on twitter @araijain or @thelifesway
Email - thelifesway@gmail.com for invites to launch events / sponsored posts and product reviews!
Checkout my Instagram (araijain) page
Checkout my photo blog - www.photoyatra.blogspot.in
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How #MissionSamsung Spiced Up My Honeymoon in SA! @SamsungSA

Hi Guys,

Marriage is something which brings in a lot of change in your life. It takes away your bachelorhood and adds a ton of responsibilities on your shoulders. My journey with marriage was full of surprises and it was also a dream to marry my beloved from college. Just like all the journeys, the first thing that comes to mind is the packing the right stuff for this adventurous roller coaster. I started my travel to my parent’s house going through all the panoramic country side capturing it using NX300 camera which got hybrid autofocus to take crisp clear photographs at 20.3MP in a running bus. 

It was a hectic schedule of religious ceremonies and meeting relatives which traveled from all over to be a part of this festival called marriage. Just on the D- Day as I was getting ready to say the final good-bye to my bachelorhood, friends barged into my room with some surprise gift that they said will help me to stay connected always with them as well as others. Indian Marriages is full of music, dance, ceremonies and great food. I enjoyed it thoroughly to the point it started blowing my mind with all the excitement as I was going on my honeymoon to the amazing and wonderful Rainbow country called South Africa. I was waiting for everything to be over as soon as possible so that I can see the panoramic and famous Garden Route and related places of interest. 

After all the ceremonies was over and it was time to open the gifts, the very first on my list was to open what my best friends thought for me. I had an idea it will be a smartphone as they said but never thought that it will be the phablet called Samsung Galaxy Note 4 which I always dreamed to hold other than my girlfriend’s & now wife’s waist. I was so elated that I didn't even bother to open the rest of the gifts as I started clicking pictures and taking video with the same. S Pen was an amazing new tool to catch my attention the most.

Soon the day arrived as we boarded SA Airways from Delhi to Johannesburg on our trip to the country. We had our trip sorted with an initial evening in Johannesburg and then travelling to Kruger to stay inside the game reserves and watch all the big 5 live in jungle. The 3 Stars accommodation we chose in the heart of the city was featured with amazing Samsung LED Smart TV which got us connected to skype and internet to be aware of the happenings around back home and the country. As I learned to make nice tea in London using the creamer/tea/sugar and water kettle, I tried to impress my wife with my so called handmade tea without being cooked. To my wonder I could actually see a Samsung Smart Microwave Oven sitting right in the small kitchen area and I immediately warmed the tea for a min or so and I got the same taste as I get back in India. This oven is capable of cooking a nice meal all by yourself and you can save a lot of money. This one can do fried food without using any oil by using it's slim fry technology. 

We took a tour of the city and stopped at Rosebank to see the new Samsung store featuring all the amazing products on display and wife was immediately attracted towards the Samsung Galaxy A3 for its metallic design. I could see the love for the smartphone in her eyes. I thought of something and headed out to have a great dinner at Melrose Arch. As I came back to the hotel in the taxi with my wife head on my shoulder, I started browsing Samsung SA’s twitter page and came across various new products and most importantly Mission Samsung Blogger Challenge which immediately caught my attention. As my wife slept in the 3 stars bed, I continued to research about the same and slept to see a dream that I have become the Winner of this challenge. 

Kruger national park was amazing but my camera could only zoom out 3x-4x as I only had 18-55mm lens on my NX300 camera. I was feeling disappointed by being so close yet so far from all the wild animals but then my wife said that she can bring the Lion, Cheetah closer to us by using her Samsung Galaxy K Zoom which has 10x optical zoom. It also has 3G connectivity to upload the photographs on your social media instantly which was amazing as our families could also enjoy our trip. I never knew she has something like that in her big bag and I could see the animals which were so far coming so close to me and shoot them too with this camera. I instantly fell in love with my wife once all over again. 

It was time to go to the mother city of Cape Town and create more memories. We came to see the two oceans meeting at Cape Agulhas & Cape Point, I could feel that our marriage is very similar as two families came together to make us one. It’s the harmony that we both have to achieve to stay together and accept each other with full trust and sharing the joys and sorrows. As I was tired of the all the travel, I slept till late and wife ordered the Espresso coffee while she was watching a morning show named Expresso on the SABC 3 TV. “What a coincidence”, she said! I saw a Chef Reuben Riffel cooking nice food on the same too. 

It was the penultimate day of our honeymoon before heading back to India and I thought of just relaxing at the Victoria’s Wharf waterfront and seeing some of the shopping malls to buy some memorabilia for the new extended family back home. As we sat on the corner of signal hill watching the sunset, I immediately pulled out the gift which I have been carrying and hiding in my luggage all this time to my wife. As she quickly opened it there, her eyes were filled with tears of joy as it was the new Samsung Galaxy A3 in Gold along with Level Over Headphones in Gold/Brown combination which will go a long way as she simply adores music. The wireless headphones will not only make the return trip pleasurable as she browses through all the videos taken but also will help reduce aircraft’s engine noise. That was the best night of my life as we both were grateful for each other and for Samsung products.

It was an amazing trip to the rainbow country of South Africa as we built our marriage on the strong pillars of trust, respect and love for each other. Samsung did have a say in all of this as I could connect the dots looking backwards to see my travel before the start of married life in bus with NX300 camera and ending here today with a lot of latest devices making my honeymoon worth remembering. 

Cheers!!!

Follow me on twitter @araijain or @thelifesway
Email - thelifesway@gmail.com for invites to launch events / sponsored posts and product reviews!
Checkout my Instagram (araijain) page
Checkout my photo blog - www.photoyatra.blogspot.in
Like The Life's Way Page on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TheLifesWay