Super Bowl Advertisement

Samsung Superbowl Commercials

I recently stumbled upon this very interesting blog post, The Best And Worst Of Super Bowl Marketing Strategy 2012, which gives out awards, such as “biggest winners,” “worst strategy” and “best use of humor,” to several Super Bowl commercials. Scrolling through the article, I was surprised to see Samsung’s Galaxy Note commercial under “Best Strategy”. For the last few years, Apple has had a stranglehold in the smartphone, mp3, and tablet industry, especially from a marketing point of view, and their competitors have had trouble generating any buzz. But after watching Samsung’s Super Bowl commercial, and some of their advertisements leading up to the big game, I strongly believe that Apple finally has a worthy competitor.

Here is part of the blog’s reasoning for awarding Samsung’s commercial “Best Strategy”:

” For months now, Samsung has been running a brilliant series of ads poking fun at all the “iSheep” obediently waiting in line overnight for the latest Apple product with their tagline “the next big thing is already here”. Boosted by their recent announcement of record profits last quarter from strong sales of mobile devices, they are one of the small few mobile devicemakers who offer a viable alternative to the iPhone.”

Apple’s recent marketing campaigns, such as Mac vs. Windows, has really set Apple apart from Windows in the computer and smartphone industry, and none of the Windows manufacturers has had a response up until now. Samsung decided to play Apple’s game, directly comparing their products to Apple’s. Samsung has identified Apple’s weaknesses, and is trying to gain competitive advantage by pinpointing them to their target audience. The commercial is brilliant because it targets Samsung’s potential customers, which include young adults and Iphone users, (Iphone users waiting in line, party atmosphere, familiar song, celebrities) and it also makes their product look a lot more appealing than the Iphone (the setting for the “Samsung party” is in front of Apple stores, the man saying “this feels like detention” when dealing with Apple, and yelling “Freedom!” when referring to Samsung).

A few years ago, Apple made their tagline similar to this: “Windows is boring, Apple if fun.” If this Samsung commercial illustrated their positioning statement as a response to Apple’s tagline, it would go something like this:

To current and future smartphone users, especially those of you who are blinded by Apple products, Samsung’s Galaxy Note is a new smartphone with a sleek design and a very big screen, which provides the most technologically advanced features available, including 4G, unlike over-hyped Apple, which provides a slower 3G phone, and is known for always making their customers wait for their latest product.

“The next big thing is already here”