5 ms·

Samsung Buys Every Ad Position on CNet On New iPhone Launch Day

34 points by ultimatedelman 13y ago

headShrinker 13y ago
Every company has it's moments, but why does Samsung so often come off as particularly petty. Whether it's completely knocking off designs or launching half-baked products, or buying all the ad space on the day of an apposing company's product launch. The rules of capitalism allow all of this behavior, but generally mankind frowns upon it when this behavior is exhibited by a person. Why is it not frowned upon when it is exhibited by a group of people operating as one; as a corporation?
- ultimatedelman 13y ago
  Well, your opinion is your own, but there's nothing wrong with this. Apple could have just as easily bought the space. Here in San Francisco, Samsung bought all the ad space in all the BART (subway) stations for weeks leading up to and after the release of the iPhone 5 to tout the S3. It's just marketing strategy and it's a pretty good one, especially if millions (billions?) of dollars are riding on the fact that people recognize your product instead of a competing one. Granted, while effective, Samsung's strategy is rather predictable and easily (albeit expensively) countered by buying the ad space yourself. Why Apple didn't do this, I don't know. It would have been the first thing I would have done as the VP of Marketing at Apple once I knew the launch date.
  - jackowayed 13y ago
    Why bother paying a ton for ad space on the day when you know that the site will basically be a giant ad for you anyway?
    - Pxtl 13y ago
      Apple spends almost nothing compared to Samsung's giant advertising dollars anyways. They don't need to, really - Apple's solid reputation lets the media do their ads for them. Just like how Apple doesn't need to buy billboards at the mall when they have bright, inviting stores of their product to entice you.
    - untog 13y ago
      ...to stop your competitor getting it?
    - jasomill 13y ago
      Also, why wait until you've announced a major media event before buying advertising to coincide with said media event? In other words, if Samsung is buying advertising to crowd out competitors' ads on the day of an Apple product launch, Apple is surely not the competitor they're hoping to crowd out.
- Pxtl 13y ago
  I've always said, somebody needs to tell Samsung that they're a market leader. They act like a cheap Chinese knock-off company in spite of their strong position and brand.
- pekk 13y ago
  It comes off as petty because you don't like them. It doesn't come off as petty to me - I simply don't think about Samsung, so I don't brood about it either. I can't see any analogy between Samsung and individuals. Whether something is a knockoff or half-baked seems to be your judgment.
  - scuba7183 13y ago
    Comes off as smart to me
  - phreanix 13y ago
    Still, this is a decision made by individuals who thought it was a smart move.
- ZeroGravitas 13y ago
  Why is "launching half-baked products" petty? And why does mankind frown upon it?
- mikeash 13y ago
  Apple does stuff like book so much air freight space from China that they squeeze out other users: http://www.cultofmac.com/150519/massive-apple-air-freight-deal-could-mean-ipad-3-will-ship-even-sooner-than-we-thought/ http://www.cultofmac.com/150519/massive-apple-air-freight-de... Bad for the planet too, and all just to save a couple of weeks on a boat. Buying up ad space seems pretty minor by comparison. I guess minor does go along with "petty". Funny how we're sometimes much more upset about a small slight than a large one.
  - JonFish85 13y ago
    Those aren't just a couple of weeks on a boat. Those are probably some of the most valuable weeks in the global economy today. The faster you can move product the better, especially when you're Apple and you're trying to maximize how many you sell right after a launch. If you're trying to draw a comparison, maybe a better way to compare would be to say that Apple buys up empty carriers just to keep Samsung from moving their stuff?
  - astrodust 13y ago
    Inventory sitting around on a boat for a couple of weeks costs you a lot of money. We're not talking about sewing machines or anvils here, we're talking about a high-margin item that weighs very little and is extremely "perishable". Air-freight is perfect for this.
    - mikeash 13y ago
      Well, they only do it once a year. I have to wonder just how much it would really cost to move production up a couple of weeks, or move the release down a couple of weeks. Most of the time they're fine waiting for inventory to come over the slow way.
      - astrodust 13y ago
        The cost of shipping a phone by plane is insignificant because they're booking so much capacity. This isn't like FedExing one phone from your house to a friend. This is a whole other scale. They probably only pay a couple of bucks and they save way more than that by not having to stockpile these phones anywhere, with heavy security to keep them from "leaking", for weeks on end. Apple turns over their inventory almost as fast as McDonald's. Think about that.
- dylangs1030 13y ago
  On the contrary, I think it's pretty cool and creative that they did this. Very tactical of them. But then, I'm also very neutral in the iPhone vs. Android debate.
- JonFish85 13y ago
  It comes off as petty because they buy up the ad space specifically to try to get in someone else's way. They didn't buy it specifically because they have a product launch. They didn't buy it just on a random day. They bought it to try to hamstring a competitor. To me, that's negative competition rather than positive (trying to drag someone else down rather than to elevate yourself). That's petty.
  - mayanksinghal 13y ago
    There is no way this can be called 'negative competition'. This could be considered grey if you count every single interaction between competitors as such. If this is petty than Mac-Windows ads must be categorized disgustingly so.
- Kylekramer 13y ago
  If a person did this, it would be the kind of thing they would answer for the "successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage" question on the YC application.
  - JonFish85 13y ago
    Since when is "pay a bunch of money" any sort of "hack"? Granted the term "hack" is being watered down, but has it slipped this far? Did I "hack" myself a cup of coffee today? Nope, I paid for it.
    - Kylekramer 13y ago
      The "paying money" is just the means of the "hack", not the "hack" itself. The hack is recognizing that there is a great, targeted opportunity to keep your product in customers' minds on one of the biggest marketing days for your biggest competitor. If anything, Samsung saved money by using it efficiently.
- untog 13y ago
  Apple is plenty petty, too. Remember when they blocked Google Voice because it "replicated existing functionality"? Why is it not frowned upon when it is exhibited by a group of people operating as one; as a corporation? Because who cares, aside from Apple fans? When an individual is petty, the target of that pettiness is a person. When a company is petty, the target of that pettiness is another company. Why become personally attached to that? It isn't your profit at stake. Besides, if we judged companies that way what would Walmart be? A sociopathic killer, or something...
- andrewljohnson 13y ago
  Do you think it's petty when a grocery store puts their own bottle of blue stuff next to the Windex? Is making their own blue stuff petty, or is it when they display it next to the brand name blue stuff that it becomes petty? Good for Samsung, good for smartphone buyers, and even if it's not good for Apple's bottom line this year, this sort of competition should be healthy. If they can't compete with the knock-offs, it's time to stop buying Apple products.
jnardiello 13y ago
This is genius.
- modfodder 13y ago
  I thought so too until I actually saw the page. Every single article is about the iPhone, it's actually hard to notice the Samsung ads (imho). I still think it was worth doing on the part of Samsung, but they'll probably get more traction from the press about buying all the ad space than the actual ad space itself.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
dan1234 13y ago
It just shows Barclays adverts for me (UK IP address)
dale386 13y ago
Obligatory "CNet has ads? I use AdBlock!" post.
- astrodust 13y ago
  Yeah, I didn't see any ads. Ignorance is bliss.
- marcosdumay 13y ago
  At first I tought "And where are the ads? I can't see them". But I don't use AdBlock, just NoScript. If CNet wanted to serve me ads without random code that I must execute, I'd see them, no problem at it.
greenburger 13y ago
I'm not sure this will be particularly successful. Looks like well over half of the content on the CNet homepage is iPhone related. That's the kinda of advertising only Apple seems to get, much better and a lot cheaper. The amount Samsung has to spend to overcome the "organic" Apple advantage must be rather large.
- Pxtl 13y ago
  > The amount Samsung has to spend to overcome the "organic" Apple advantage must be rather large. It is indeed. Samsung spends a roughly-flat 15% of their revenue on advertising. As their cellphone share grows, this spending grows... to obscene levels. http://www.asymco.com/2012/11/29/the-cost-of-selling-galaxies/ http://www.asymco.com/2012/11/29/the-cost-of-selling-galaxie...
gesman 13y ago
+1 to AdBlocker
sigzero 13y ago
I don't see anything on that page that says that?
- lumens 13y ago
  This is more of a 'show and tell' post. There is no article about this happening... the OP just linked to CNET where this is happening. If you don't see it, perhaps you have AdBlocker on?
  - sigzero 13y ago
    Ah, I was expecting an "article" on CNET about it. Totally see the ads now.
pearjuice 13y ago
For a brief period of time I turned off my adblocker and temporarily reverted my hosts file to the default to see what was going on. It is 2013 and internet advertising still ruins the browsing experience. Very quickly I've put everything back in place. I don't even care about how I am not supporting website owners. This isn't worth it.
- sharkweek 13y ago
  It's still surprisingly broken (as a whole) despite everything else on the web moving forward leaps and bounds -- Wish I had an answer, as it's a bazillion dollar industry just waiting for a cleaner solution
- untog 13y ago
  This isn't worth it. What isn't worth what, exactly? The content isn't worth the ads? Then don't read it. Deciding that it "isn't worth" supporting web site owners is a fantastically selfish way to look at things. If I find a site with obnoxious advertising I close the tab and go elsewhere. It's not like there aren't other sources of iPhone 5S release news.
  - pearjuice 13y ago
    Allowing websites to pull in revenue with advertisements isn't worth it if I get dragged through optimized layouts for better ad-CTR, links which look like generic website content but are ads, all sorts of pop-ups with hard-to-find close buttons (this bold red cross which looks like it will close another Javascript pop-up? Here comes browser tab #43, maybe this advertisement interests you!) and other nasty tricks. It might be selfish but it is part of the freedom I have.
    - untog 13y ago
      The part you didn't address: if those things are such a pain for you (and I have no idea what sites you're reading regularly because I get a popup like that very, very rarely) then close the tab and don't read the site.
sologoub 13y ago
Seems like a run of the mill homepage takeover... many advertisers do that.
zmmmmm 13y ago
I remember hearing that Samsung devotes a fixed proportion of its sales revenue to advertising, so in boom times they end up with ridiculous amounts of money in their marketing budget. This smells to me like their ad people literally have so much money now they can't work out what else to do with it.
dangerboysteve 13y ago
people use cnet ?

Every company has it's moments, but why does Samsung so often come off as particularly petty. Whether it's completely knocking off designs or launching half-baked products, or buying all the ad space on the day of an apposing company's product launch. The rules of capitalism allow all of this behavior, but generally mankind frowns upon it when this behavior is exhibited by a person. Why is it not frowned upon when it is exhibited by a group of people operating as one; as a corporation?

ultimatedelman 13y ago
Well, your opinion is your own, but there's nothing wrong with this. Apple could have just as easily bought the space. Here in San Francisco, Samsung bought all the ad space in all the BART (subway) stations for weeks leading up to and after the release of the iPhone 5 to tout the S3. It's just marketing strategy and it's a pretty good one, especially if millions (billions?) of dollars are riding on the fact that people recognize your product instead of a competing one. Granted, while effective, Samsung's strategy is rather predictable and easily (albeit expensively) countered by buying the ad space yourself. Why Apple didn't do this, I don't know. It would have been the first thing I would have done as the VP of Marketing at Apple once I knew the launch date.
- jackowayed 13y ago
  Why bother paying a ton for ad space on the day when you know that the site will basically be a giant ad for you anyway?
  - Pxtl 13y ago
    Apple spends almost nothing compared to Samsung's giant advertising dollars anyways. They don't need to, really - Apple's solid reputation lets the media do their ads for them. Just like how Apple doesn't need to buy billboards at the mall when they have bright, inviting stores of their product to entice you.
  - untog 13y ago
    ...to stop your competitor getting it?
  - jasomill 13y ago
    Also, why wait until you've announced a major media event before buying advertising to coincide with said media event? In other words, if Samsung is buying advertising to crowd out competitors' ads on the day of an Apple product launch, Apple is surely not the competitor they're hoping to crowd out.
Pxtl 13y ago
I've always said, somebody needs to tell Samsung that they're a market leader. They act like a cheap Chinese knock-off company in spite of their strong position and brand.
pekk 13y ago
It comes off as petty because you don't like them. It doesn't come off as petty to me - I simply don't think about Samsung, so I don't brood about it either. I can't see any analogy between Samsung and individuals. Whether something is a knockoff or half-baked seems to be your judgment.
- scuba7183 13y ago
  Comes off as smart to me
- phreanix 13y ago
  Still, this is a decision made by individuals who thought it was a smart move.
ZeroGravitas 13y ago
Why is "launching half-baked products" petty? And why does mankind frown upon it?
mikeash 13y ago
Apple does stuff like book so much air freight space from China that they squeeze out other users: http://www.cultofmac.com/150519/massive-apple-air-freight-deal-could-mean-ipad-3-will-ship-even-sooner-than-we-thought/ http://www.cultofmac.com/150519/massive-apple-air-freight-de... Bad for the planet too, and all just to save a couple of weeks on a boat. Buying up ad space seems pretty minor by comparison. I guess minor does go along with "petty". Funny how we're sometimes much more upset about a small slight than a large one.
- JonFish85 13y ago
  Those aren't just a couple of weeks on a boat. Those are probably some of the most valuable weeks in the global economy today. The faster you can move product the better, especially when you're Apple and you're trying to maximize how many you sell right after a launch. If you're trying to draw a comparison, maybe a better way to compare would be to say that Apple buys up empty carriers just to keep Samsung from moving their stuff?
- astrodust 13y ago
  Inventory sitting around on a boat for a couple of weeks costs you a lot of money. We're not talking about sewing machines or anvils here, we're talking about a high-margin item that weighs very little and is extremely "perishable". Air-freight is perfect for this.
  - mikeash 13y ago
    Well, they only do it once a year. I have to wonder just how much it would really cost to move production up a couple of weeks, or move the release down a couple of weeks. Most of the time they're fine waiting for inventory to come over the slow way.
    - astrodust 13y ago
      The cost of shipping a phone by plane is insignificant because they're booking so much capacity. This isn't like FedExing one phone from your house to a friend. This is a whole other scale. They probably only pay a couple of bucks and they save way more than that by not having to stockpile these phones anywhere, with heavy security to keep them from "leaking", for weeks on end. Apple turns over their inventory almost as fast as McDonald's. Think about that.
dylangs1030 13y ago
On the contrary, I think it's pretty cool and creative that they did this. Very tactical of them. But then, I'm also very neutral in the iPhone vs. Android debate.
JonFish85 13y ago
It comes off as petty because they buy up the ad space specifically to try to get in someone else's way. They didn't buy it specifically because they have a product launch. They didn't buy it just on a random day. They bought it to try to hamstring a competitor. To me, that's negative competition rather than positive (trying to drag someone else down rather than to elevate yourself). That's petty.
- mayanksinghal 13y ago
  There is no way this can be called 'negative competition'. This could be considered grey if you count every single interaction between competitors as such. If this is petty than Mac-Windows ads must be categorized disgustingly so.
Kylekramer 13y ago
If a person did this, it would be the kind of thing they would answer for the "successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage" question on the YC application.
- JonFish85 13y ago
  Since when is "pay a bunch of money" any sort of "hack"? Granted the term "hack" is being watered down, but has it slipped this far? Did I "hack" myself a cup of coffee today? Nope, I paid for it.
  - Kylekramer 13y ago
    The "paying money" is just the means of the "hack", not the "hack" itself. The hack is recognizing that there is a great, targeted opportunity to keep your product in customers' minds on one of the biggest marketing days for your biggest competitor. If anything, Samsung saved money by using it efficiently.
untog 13y ago
Apple is plenty petty, too. Remember when they blocked Google Voice because it "replicated existing functionality"? Why is it not frowned upon when it is exhibited by a group of people operating as one; as a corporation? Because who cares, aside from Apple fans? When an individual is petty, the target of that pettiness is a person. When a company is petty, the target of that pettiness is another company. Why become personally attached to that? It isn't your profit at stake. Besides, if we judged companies that way what would Walmart be? A sociopathic killer, or something...
andrewljohnson 13y ago
Do you think it's petty when a grocery store puts their own bottle of blue stuff next to the Windex? Is making their own blue stuff petty, or is it when they display it next to the brand name blue stuff that it becomes petty? Good for Samsung, good for smartphone buyers, and even if it's not good for Apple's bottom line this year, this sort of competition should be healthy. If they can't compete with the knock-offs, it's time to stop buying Apple products.

jnardiello 13y ago

This is genius.

modfodder 13y ago
I thought so too until I actually saw the page. Every single article is about the iPhone, it's actually hard to notice the Samsung ads (imho). I still think it was worth doing on the part of Samsung, but they'll probably get more traction from the press about buying all the ad space than the actual ad space itself.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

dan1234 13y ago

It just shows Barclays adverts for me (UK IP address)

dale386 13y ago

Obligatory "CNet has ads? I use AdBlock!" post.

astrodust 13y ago
Yeah, I didn't see any ads. Ignorance is bliss.
marcosdumay 13y ago
At first I tought "And where are the ads? I can't see them". But I don't use AdBlock, just NoScript. If CNet wanted to serve me ads without random code that I must execute, I'd see them, no problem at it.

greenburger 13y ago

I'm not sure this will be particularly successful. Looks like well over half of the content on the CNet homepage is iPhone related. That's the kinda of advertising only Apple seems to get, much better and a lot cheaper. The amount Samsung has to spend to overcome the "organic" Apple advantage must be rather large.

Pxtl 13y ago
> The amount Samsung has to spend to overcome the "organic" Apple advantage must be rather large. It is indeed. Samsung spends a roughly-flat 15% of their revenue on advertising. As their cellphone share grows, this spending grows... to obscene levels. http://www.asymco.com/2012/11/29/the-cost-of-selling-galaxies/ http://www.asymco.com/2012/11/29/the-cost-of-selling-galaxie...

gesman 13y ago

+1 to AdBlocker

sigzero 13y ago

I don't see anything on that page that says that?

lumens 13y ago
This is more of a 'show and tell' post. There is no article about this happening... the OP just linked to CNET where this is happening. If you don't see it, perhaps you have AdBlocker on?
- sigzero 13y ago
  Ah, I was expecting an "article" on CNET about it. Totally see the ads now.

pearjuice 13y ago

For a brief period of time I turned off my adblocker and temporarily reverted my hosts file to the default to see what was going on. It is 2013 and internet advertising still ruins the browsing experience. Very quickly I've put everything back in place. I don't even care about how I am not supporting website owners. This isn't worth it.

sharkweek 13y ago
It's still surprisingly broken (as a whole) despite everything else on the web moving forward leaps and bounds -- Wish I had an answer, as it's a bazillion dollar industry just waiting for a cleaner solution
untog 13y ago
This isn't worth it. What isn't worth what, exactly? The content isn't worth the ads? Then don't read it. Deciding that it "isn't worth" supporting web site owners is a fantastically selfish way to look at things. If I find a site with obnoxious advertising I close the tab and go elsewhere. It's not like there aren't other sources of iPhone 5S release news.
- pearjuice 13y ago
  Allowing websites to pull in revenue with advertisements isn't worth it if I get dragged through optimized layouts for better ad-CTR, links which look like generic website content but are ads, all sorts of pop-ups with hard-to-find close buttons (this bold red cross which looks like it will close another Javascript pop-up? Here comes browser tab #43, maybe this advertisement interests you!) and other nasty tricks. It might be selfish but it is part of the freedom I have.
  - untog 13y ago
    The part you didn't address: if those things are such a pain for you (and I have no idea what sites you're reading regularly because I get a popup like that very, very rarely) then close the tab and don't read the site.

sologoub 13y ago

Seems like a run of the mill homepage takeover... many advertisers do that.

zmmmmm 13y ago

I remember hearing that Samsung devotes a fixed proportion of its sales revenue to advertising, so in boom times they end up with ridiculous amounts of money in their marketing budget. This smells to me like their ad people literally have so much money now they can't work out what else to do with it.

dangerboysteve 13y ago

people use cnet ?