In 1997, Samsung launched its first corporate advertising campaign – Nobel Prize Series. This ad was aired in nine languages across Europe, Middle East, Latin America and CIS. The advertisement showed a man (representing a Nobel Prize Laureate) passing through one scene to another and as the man passes through different scenes, Samsung products transform into more advanced models. According to company sources, the idea was to give out message that Samsung uses Nobel Prize Laureates’ ideas for making its products. Samsung also signed an agreement with Nobel Prize foundation to sponsor Nobel Prize Series, worldwide. The program was developed by Nobel Foundation, Sweden to spread achievements of the Nobel Prize Laureates. In 1999, Samsung unveiled a new campaign in the US with a new brand slogan – ‘Samsung DIGITall: Everyone’s invited’ on the eve of its 30th anniversary. Samsung re-designed its logo to convey its objective of making life filled with convenience, abundance and enjoyment through innovative digital products (Refer Figure I). SAMSUNG DIGITall expressed the company’s vision to provide digital products: For all generations, for all customers and for all products. In April 2001, in the brand campaign created by True North Communications’ the company planned 30-seconds TV spots on various channels such as CNN, VH1, ESPN, TNT and NBC during NBA games. The first advertisement in the series – ‘Anthem’ was set in U.K. The advertisement showed different Samsung products – flat screen TV monitor, MP3 Player, watch phone being used by multi-ethnic cast. In the background, a voice broke out: “There is a world where you see, hear and feel things like never before, where design awakens all your senses. This is the world of Samsung and everyone’s invited” and at the end of the commercial company’s tagline ‘DIGITall, Everyone’s invited’ appeared. The ‘DIGITall’ campaign was integrated across all the countries where the company had presence and across all product lines. The marketing initiatives included sponsorship of events on global and regional scale. It was reported that around 30 people from Samsung’s Seoul and North America offices worked with FCB on the campaign. In 2001, Samsung added word ‘WOW’ in its marketing campaigns signifying the admiration of the consumers for its innovative products like voice activated mobile phones cum MP3 players. The word ‘WOW’ indicated consumers’ appreciation about Samsung’s high technology products at affordable prices. It was reported that Samsung’s 2001 global brand campaign increased consumer awareness about Samsung from 83.7% in 2000 to 91.2 in 2001 and in the US, brand awareness and preference for Samsung increased from 56.4% to 74.1% for the same period. In April 2002, Samsung adopted Internet marketing to reach out the high-profile consumers. It concentrated on increasing brand awareness; retail and web traffic and give away product information with every advertisement. It bought out web ad space on more than 50 websites such as Fortune.com, Forbes.com and BusinessWeek.com. Along with its Internet marketing initiatives, Samsung also advertised in print and television. In May 2002, Samsung announced to extend its ‘DIGITall’ campaign, by launching new global campaigns with different tag lines – ‘DIGITall Passion,’ ‘DIGITall Escape,’ and ‘DIGITall Wow.’ The new ads projected mobile phones, Colour LCD mobile phones, entertainment products and its future products like – Internet refrigerator, highlighting easy accessibility and usage of the products. Said Kim, “Many consumers think of digital technology as an elite experience that’s inaccessible to them. Samsung prides itself on developing revolutionary technology that meets everyone’s needs – business or personal.”

1. Narrate how the objective behind Samsung’s advertising campaigns shifted over a period of time? 2. Do you think its advertising campaign helped Samsung in positioning itself better in the market?