“Samsung Electronics Co. spent an estimated $20 million on ads to run during breaks in the Academy Awards broadcast on Sunday night,” Suzanne Vranica reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Ms. DeGeneres toyed with a white Samsung phone during the broadcast, including when she handed a Galaxy Note 3 to actor Bradley Cooper so he could take a ‘selfie’ photo of himself and other stars including Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Lawrence surrounding the host.”
“As part of its sponsorship and ad pact for the Oscars with ABC, the TV network airing the show, Samsung and its media buying firm Starcom MediaVest negotiated to have its Galaxy smartphone integrated into the show, according to two people familiar with the matter,” Vranica reports. “ABC is a unit of Walt Disney Co.”
MacDailyNews Take: And, ironically, Steve Jobs called Android a “stolen product” and vowed to wage “thermonuclear war” over it while his widow Laurene, via the estate of Steve Jobs, remains the largest single shareholder in ABC parent Walt Disney Co.
“Samsung gave ABC smartphones to use during the broadcast and was promised its devices would get airtime, these people said,” Vranica reports. “Ms. DeGeneres, in the days leading up to the broadcast, decided she wanted to take “selfies” during the show and ABC suggested she use a Samsung since it was a sponsor, another person familiar with the matter said. During rehearsals Samsung executives trained Ms. DeGeneres on how to use the Samsung Galaxy, two people familiar with the matter said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Because, in real life, Ellen DeGeneres is an iPhone user.
“TV networks typically reserve such product placement for big spending advertisers, media buyers say. Samsung was one of the biggest sponsors of this year’s Oscars broadcast, buying five minutes of commercial time,” Vranica reports. “Kantar Media estimates that advertisers were paying roughly $1.8 million for 30 seconds worth of Oscar ad time this year. That implies Samsung could have spent $18 million on ad time this year. By comparison, the company spent a total of $24 million advertising on the Oscars since 2009, according to Kantar… The Samsung stunt didn’t come off without a hitch: many people were quick to note on Twitter that the Oscar host was also tweeting during the evening with rival Apple’s iPhone. Samsung declined to comment about Ms. DeGeneres’ iPhone usage.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Those in-the-know understand that Ellen really uses an iPhone and was paid to pretend to promote the Samsung on-air. The rest of the world, the low-info crowd, thinks that “all the stars” use Samsung phones.
So, as usual, Samsung will continue selling fake iPhones and iPads to the ignorati, while the informed refuse to settle for inferior knockoffs and choose real iPhones and iPads.
Net result: $20 million more of Samsung’s ill-gotten gains flushed straight down the toilet.
Related articles:
Samsung pays big bucks for Oscars product placement, but Twitter and an Apple iPhone steal show – March 3, 2014
Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres uses sponsored Samsung onstage, tweets from her Apple iPhone backstage – March 3, 2014
Samsung gets caught yet again with celebrity tweeting Galaxy ad from their Apple iPhone – December 3, 2013
T-Mobile USA CEO tweets ‘I don’t know what I’d do without my Samsung Note 3′ – from his Apple iPhone 5s – October 22, 2013
Tennis player David Ferrer accidentally tweets Samsung Galaxy S4 ad from his Apple iPhone – April 30, 2013
Oprah tweets ‘love’ of Microsoft’s Surface from her Apple iPad – November 19, 2012
