It's not rare to hear about brands investing in community projects and initiatives - in fact there's even a fancy name for it - Corporate Social Investment. In my personal experience most brands use CSI as a tax break or a way to advertise how 'good' and 'nice' they are, but that sentiment very seldom translates into the visible actions of individuals and groups within the brand.

So you may understand why I went along to the presentation ceremony for the Samsung J700 Next Hero Campaign - a celebration of a R1 million donation by Samsung Mobile to Play Soccer South Africa - a little cynical.

If you've been following the Samsung Blog, you'll know that Samsung and Play Soccer South Africa launched the NextHero campaign a few weeks ago. The intention behind this campaign is to provide funding to allow young soccer players to pursue stardom. Samsung plays a huge role in this sponsorship.

For every J700 sold, a portion of the sale will go towards to funding the growth of young soccer stars. The J700 itself is an awesome phone. With a 1.3 Mega Pixel camera, MP3 and video player, and Bluetooth, the J700 has a great feature set in a sturdy slider format. We're currently using one at the office and its proven to be extremely user-friendly.

As promised, here is a video of the press event that launched the NextHero Campaign. Click here to view it.

As we all know, soccer is one of the most popular sports in our country. It has united us in many ways and plays a fundamental role in the development of our young people (both on and off the field). With this in mind, Samsung have partnered with Play Soccer South Africa. The result of this partnership is the NextHero campaign which is aimed at growing and developing African soccer talent.