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Samsung Samsung Galaxy

Samsung looks to balance scale with ‘thoughtful marketing’ to spur mobile sales

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By Seb Joseph, News editor

April 23, 2015 | 4 min read

Samsung is taking a more calculated approach to promoting its flagship smartphone for the year, one that will try to balance its most expansive media plan yet in bolder ways in a bid to recoup lost market share.

Much is expected of the Galaxy S6 with the South Korean manufacturer targeting 70 million units by the end of 2015. Samsung lost a bit of steam last year as it was squeezed between lower-cost Android alternatives and the more premium Apple iphone but has regrouped and launched a make-or-break push to get back in the palms of consumers.

Samsung UK vice president of corporate marketing Russell Taylor told The Drum that 2015 was “pivotal” for the business as it “transitions from big brand to loved brand”.

The transition stems from a fundamental shift in marketing mindset, from “shy and reserved” to something more “thoughtful”, according to Taylor. So where the brand may have been inclined to stick to a rigid media model that has been honed over the years, now its marketers employ a wider range of channels in unusual ways.

“It’s going to be a longer campaign, a more multifaceted campaign that involves having a multitude of different conversations with slightly different messages and different tonality to put our story across,” added Taylor. He described the approach with the Galaxy S6’s debut ad (see below), which used its reveal at Mobile World Congress as the basis for creative that was turned around in just three hours.

Another example saw the manufacturer host a scavenger hunt for its coveted smartphone by posting clues on its location on Twitter.

Fans of the ads, of which Taylor claims there are many, can expect more of the same from the campaign, spanning everything from vloggers to TV and social media to experiential.

Vloggers are of particular interest to the business, with it viewing the influencers as a disruptive alternative to its tried and tested method of using technology journalists to generate buzz for its products. Moving forward, Samsung plans to continue experimenting with these influencers to gauge how they can be used in a responsible manner in different ways.

Taylor said the involvement of influencers was emblematic of how the balance between what it does on its owned channels versus other mediums “is clearly changing”.

The shift reflects wider marketing changes happening across the business. It is trying to get into the content game with a news room-style strategy devised by DigitasLBi and appointed its Russian division lead Lee Sang-chul as its mobile marketing head in February.

“The amount of money that we spend in each [channel] is clearly changing as well,” Taylor added. “There are more touchpoints than ever and our job is to make sure that we’re winning at each stage of the customer journey.”

All elements of the Galaxy S6 campaign are joined by “Next is Now”, a mantra the technology giant hopes encapsulates both the power of the brand and the progressive nature of the phone.

The sleek metal casing and curved glass screen of the Galaxy S6 are a world away from its less showy plastic-encased predecessors. Replete with functional enhancements too in the shape of wireless charging and mobile payments, there is no doubt the smartphone war with Apple’s alternative has been reignited following its stutter in 2014.

Apple’s record-busting first quarter sales ate heavily into Samsung's but despite the runaway success iPhone 6 sales ended 2014 with less market share than at the start of the year, while Android devices continued to rise. iOS devices slumped from 15.4 per cent share at the end of 2014 from 15.5 per cent, according to Gartner, while Android devices rose to 80.7 per cent from 78.5 per cent.

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