Samsung has again flexed its financial muscle during the Oscars telecast, buying three crucial spots that sought to underscore one overarching message, that Samsung Galaxy phones are safe and tested in extreme conditions to avoid the Note 7 battery explosions.
Tested, Retested, And Tested Again
The two 30-second ads shown during the Oscars focused on this promise. The first underscored how the South Korean company ensures the quality of its devices. This has been tied to a reference to Samsung's legacy, which seems to be saying that the company is staking its reputation when it claims that the upcoming Samsung devices are not going to burn your pockets.
"Our phones are extensively tested, retested, and then, tested again," one of the ads claimed. "Innovation is our legacy. Quality is our priority."
To complement those words, the commercial featured images of Samsung handsets being subjected to various torture tests. The battery seemed to have endured the bulk of it as it was depicted getting baked in an oven, pierced, dropped and prodded by several contraptions that simulate all sorts of abuse. By the end of the commercial, the audience must have taken the hint for good measure.
Samsung Battery Safety Check
The other ad also briefly demonstrated the so-called eight-point battery safety check, which Samsung stressed is its toughest safety check ever. No specific details as to the exact process or what kind of cutting edge technologies will help prevent new Galaxy handsets from exploding but the emphasis on tests speaks volumes about Samsung's priority when it recently began manufacturing its devices.
Unfortunately, these two ads did not include footages of the Galaxy S8 getting tortured or tested. The ad demonstrating the eight-point battery test, for example, showed the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge if only for the fact that the devices still sport a Home button. Like the LG G6, upcoming Samsung flagships will no longer have a Home button according to leaked reports.
For Ordinary Video Creators
The last of the ads merely paid homage to the ordinary folks out there who love to create videos and don't have any big awards show and fancy cameras. It relied on popular YouTube star Casey Neistat to deliver the message. He is particularly known for his contents that contain critiques of Apple products.
The last commercial material has punctuated Samsung's new strategy, drastically departing from the celebrity-based marketing it has pursued in the past. In 2016, for example, the company tapped William H. Macy to headline its Gear VR commercial. The year before that, Ellen DeGeneres went viral with her Samsung-sponsored selfie.
