New in OS X: Get MacRumors Push Notifications on your Mac

Resubscribe Now Close

Samsung Marketing Blitz Outpaced Apple in 2012

Wednesday March 13, 2013 7:31 am PDT by Ben Lovejoy
Samsung's lead over Apple last year in the smartphone race was helped by a massive marketing blitz, reports The Wall Street Journal.

ad-spend
Figures published by Kantar Media showed that in 2011, Apple was outspending Samsung three-to-one in mobile phone advertising (red graphics). Samsung massively increased its phone advertising spending from $78 million in 2011 to $401 million in 2012, 20% higher than Apple's $333 million.
The willingness to spend heavily could prove even more important as the technology gap between rivals narrows.

"They understand how to build a strong product...and have been willing to invest to drive their success," said Michael Sievert, chief marketing officer of T-Mobile USA Inc., a unit of Deutsche Telekom DTE.

To be sure, Apple remains a powerful brand that benefits from its own advertising and ubiquitous references in popular culture. Apple's iPhone is America's most effective mobile phone brand, advertising analytics firm Ace Metrix said in January. But Samsung finished second in phones and was the top technology brand of 2012, said Ace.
Samsung has been running a high-profile teaser campaign for its Galaxy S IV phone due to be launched tomorrow at Radio City Music Hall, and will undoubtedly continue that push with even more advertising to drive sales of the new flagship device.

Just weeks ago, Ken Segall, the creative director behind several of Apple's ad campaigns including the iconic "Think Different" effort, highlighted the effectiveness of Samsung's people-based ads, arguing that Apple needs to step up its game in order to counter Samsung's marketing successes.

[ 147 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Avatar
MonkeySee....
83 months ago
Apple mainly sell stuff on reputation, not fooling the masses to buy knock off's.
Rating: 20 Votes
Avatar
Unspeaked
83 months ago

Lesson learned: the more you spend on advertising, the more your product sells.


Yeah, just ask Microsoft with their Zune! And Surface!

Oh, wait...
Rating: 20 Votes
Avatar
KieranDotW
83 months ago

Lesson learned: the more you spend on advertising, the more your product sells.


If you ask me, putting ads in the MIDDLE of YouTube videos (yes that happens now) makes me want to purposefully avoid buying your product. Maybe that's just me, because apparently it's working.
Rating: 10 Votes
Avatar
rdlink
83 months ago
"Samsung has been running a high-profile teaser campaign for its Galaxy S IV phone.."


But it has Android on it.... No thanks.
Rating: 10 Votes
Avatar
realeric
83 months ago
Apple spent money on shareholders. Samsung spent money on technology, development, and marketing. :mad:
Rating: 8 Votes
Avatar
samcraig
83 months ago

I can sum this post up in one all-caps paragraph.

MY BEVELS WERE CUT BY DIAMONDS! DIAMONDS ARE EXPENSIVE! APPLE IS GOODER AND I AM SMART FOR BUYING GOODER!


Forget the fact that plastic was just fine for previous iPhones.

Forget the fact that there may be a WEE bit bias. iOS and Android - while having similar functionality are two difference experiences. And it's good there's a choice.
Rating: 8 Votes
Avatar
johncrab
83 months ago
There will always be a market for cheap, plastic, unsupported crap.
Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
Renzatic
83 months ago

I really can't understand anyone would buy a Samsung phone. If you appreciate design and a well made product, Apple is the gold standard, and the former is like that crappy counterfeit store that sells knockoffs.

You can argue that the quality of a product lies in its functionality, but using something thats made out of cheap crappy plastics and engineered using substandard industrial methods? I'll take the iPhone 5's diamond chamfered edges and aluminium any day of the week.


I can sum this post up in one all-caps paragraph.

MY BEVELS WERE CUT BY DIAMONDS! DIAMONDS ARE EXPENSIVE! APPLE IS GOODER AND I AM SMART FOR BUYING GOODER!
Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
samcraig
83 months ago

Many people simply don't know why iPhone is better. (Or Android--for some people--but Android is better mainly for a small techie niche who likes to tinker/troubleshoot and is willing to give up a lot of iOS benefits for that.)


Yeah. Sorry but this kind of crap being passed off as fact really needs to stop.
Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
lilo777
83 months ago

I really can't understand anyone would buy a Samsung phone. If you appreciate design and a well made product, Apple is the gold standard, and the former is like that crappy counterfeit store that sells knockoffs.

You can argue that the quality of a product lies in its functionality, but using something thats made out of cheap crappy plastics and engineered using substandard industrial methods? I'll take the iPhone 5's diamond chamfered edges and aluminium any day of the week.

Within a phone, a product that one uses on a daily basis, design and materials matter a heck of a lot. I must be in a completely different mindset, but I've literally never wanted to get a non Apple phone, I just can't deal with the design tradeoffs, within the feel of the product itself, and Android which seems messy and downright crappy coming from iOS.

I guess the late Steve Jobs put it best, 'We [Apple] just can't ship junk'.


To be able to use aluminum case for iPhone Apple dropped the following features:

* replaceable battery
* memory cards
* NFC
* wireless charging
* [probably] simultaneous voice and LTE data on CDMA (Verizon) - because of issues with antennas


And speaking of "cheap", just look at the actual costs. iPhone's BOM (Bill Of Materials) is the lowest among the premium smart phones. It's literally one of the cheapest top of the [respective] line smart phones out there.
Rating: 7 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]