As consumers in 2012, we are no strangers to rampant advertising. Advertisers are stepping up their game to spark our interest, since we have become so used to seeing hundreds of advertisements each day. Samsung is the latest company who is trying to woo us in unconventional ways.
Samsung is bringing its technology advertising to where it thinks consumers will be spending their summers – the movie theater.
Summer advertising at the summer blockbusters
Samsung is on the verge of releasing the newest Galaxy product, the Galaxy S III smartphone.
Galaxy S III capabilities include users being able to share pictures, videos and music by simply tapping two Galaxy S III phones together. Users will also be able to download free content (music etc.) through Samsung’s kiosks across the United States.
Maureen Morrison from Adage.com reports that Samsung could very well be spending more than double what the company spent on all Galaxy-related products in 2011 in just the next few months alone advertising the Galaxy S III. Last year, Morrison says that Samsung spent a reported $142 million on all Galaxy products.
Morrison also asked Strategic Marketing VP at Samsung, Brian Wallace, about the nature of the advertisements. For the movie theater advertisements, it looks like Samsung had to develop Kinect-like technology especially for these ad spots. The technology will detect the audience’s movements, which will control a 3-D game that will appear on the silver screen. With summer blockbusters including May’s The Avengers and July’s The Dark Knight Rises, the movie theaters are bound to be filled with Americans looking for their adrenaline fix.
This technology is just further proof that Americans are becoming de-sensitized to advertisements, and companies are trying to find ways to keep us entertained in new and interesting ways. How often have you seen a commercial and can remember the content, but can’t remember what the advertisement was for?
Mobile magazine
Samsung is also taking advantage of an untapped market – a “mobile-only magazine.”
Technology companies are constantly trying to do something that other companies haven’t thought of yet. Even satellite Internet companies can be credited with providing Internet to an untapped market – rural areas (since cable and DSL companies usually don’t provide service in areas with low population). Internet access is so easily attained in urban areas, but satellite Internet had the idea to provide a conventional product in an “unreachable” area.
This unconventional magazine will be only for Galaxy users, who will be able to access this mobile magazine content for free Morrison says.
The idea for a mobile magazine echoes how newspapers, magazines and other hard-copy content has had to make the move from paper to online print in the past few years. Newspaper subscriptions have plummeted because everyone gets their news online now – Twitter is basically a real-time news feed.
A magazine based solely for a mobile phone could change the way that other providers approach content for their customers. Whether or not other companies will join Samsung in providing mobile-only content remains to be seen.
Preparing for launch
Samsung has already released the Galaxy S III overseas, and apparently the demand for the newest Galaxy phone is already starting. According to Morrison and Korea Economic Daily, preorders in May topped 9 million.
The Galaxy S III is available world-wide this summer
