Samsung’s Oscars Ads Are Basically A Promise That Its Phones Won’t Explode Anymore

Samsung’s Galaxy Note7 debacle and the legal woes that have befallen some of Samsung’s executive management are something that will not be erased from the media’s or the users’ memory for a long time. But, it’s not impossible.

Samsung disappeared into it’s shell a long time after the debacle, with hardly any new releases over the last few months, and even the few that did get released rolled out to the public, did so with nary any fanfare.

Now, Samsung is starting to walk out to the sunshine again. It seems to be doing a lot of small and big things to explain last year’s disaster taking a vow of sorts, to never let that happen again. Clearly, it’s efforts are aimed at re-instilling a sense of faith among its users.

Part of this ‘disaster management’ effort, Samsung spent a lot of money advertising its products at the recent Oscars ceremony. In fact, three commercials were run during the Oscars.

Two 30-second advertisements focus on Samsung’s promise of quality and the fact that its devices undergo rigorous security checks.

The first ad emphasised on the point that quality devices is something that Samsung has a reputation for, and that the company is all set to stake its reputation, promising that forthcoming Samsung devices will not explode in users’ pockets.

“Our phones are extensively tested, retested, and then, tested again,” the first ad claimed. “Innovation is our legacy. Quality is our priority.”

To drive home those words, the commercial sported images of Samsung handsets being exposed to various torture tests. The battery seemed to be a sturdy unit as it was able to tolerate majority of it as the phone was shown being baked in an oven, pierced, dropped and prodded by several contraptions that replicate all sorts of abuse.

The ad sure must have sent home the right message to all the audience present at the Oscars.

The second ad, on the other hand, showcased Samsung’s eight-point battery safety check, which Samsung terms as its harshest safety check ever.
The short commercial though didn’t let out any specific details about the process or the kind of cutting edge technology Samsung has employed, to make all new Galaxy handsets explosion proof.

But the tests indicated in the commercial do speak a lot about Samsung’s priorities in it’s recently revised manufacturing processes.

The sad part of it all is that neither of these two ads include even a minute sneak peak of the much-anticipated Galaxy S8. The ad featuring the eight-point battery test used Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge as illustrations, which still sport a Home button unlike the Galaxy S8 which is rumoured to have embedded fingerprint sensor under the screen itself, instead of a physical home button.
Greedy me — I kept scouting for any form of a sneak peek at the upcoming S8!

A third ad was also aired, but it was slightly different — starring filmmaker Casey Neistat, one of the most popular YouTubers ever.

It showed Neistat standing in a tux as he narrates “The Rest Of Us”, clearly an ode to remind us that most YouTubers don’t have fancy professional cameras or big money to cover production costs, yet they manage to create video content just because they want the world to know their ideas.
“We don’t have big awards shows or fancy cameras, but what we do have are our phones”, Neistat says.
Once again, we got a lot of shots of devices like Samsung Galaxy S7 edge and the Gear 360, but still no Galaxy S8 :-(

The aim here seemed to be to strike a chord with the youth who thrive on neo-platforms especially social-media based ones, to present their creative content.

Neistat had played a major role in Samsung’s Oscars presence last year as he walked the red carpet with a prototype of the Gear 360 to demonstrate Samsung’s handheld VR camera to the world.

“Casey has been a partner of ours for some time”, said Samsung CMO Marc Mathieu in an email. Further, “he exemplifies our brand belief, which is ‘Do What You Can’t’. Today, empowered by technology and a can-do attitude, you can accomplish anything”, said Mathieu.

Samsung has lost a lot of goodwill (which is an even bigger hit than it’s USD 5.3 billion bleed) due to the Note7’s explosive demeanour — not many phones (or any other such consumer-level devices) have been banned on airlines, nor can I recall another incident of this magnitude that caused the eventual scrapping of a product altogether.

Samsung is recovering from a big hit to the solar plexus, and it’s recovery efforts seem will keep pecking at the subliminal message that Samsung devices can be trusted.

Mathieu says it best — “[There will also] be a focus on regaining consumers’ trust, reinforcing the role of our technology in their lives and successfully launching our next flagship devices, all anchored in placing the human — not just the product — first”.

Samsung will also place an increased impetus on customer care to “reinforce its emotional investment and commitment to consumers”.

“We are targeting this generation of doers, people who go out and make things happen”, Mathieu said. “Our goal is to ultimately empower consumers to realize their ambitions. If the phone in your pocket can do anything, so can you”.

Perhaps it is time to let Samsung out of the dog-house. Everybody makes mistakes, don’t they?

Originally published at Chip-Monks.