Samsung to hike adspend by Rs 15 crore

agencyfaqs! News Bureau,

NEW DELHI

Samsung India Electronics Ltd (SIEL) is all set to launch a major advertising initiative this year. The cornerstone of this initiative would be a hike in its ad budget by about Rs 15 crore this year, taking it up to Rs 80 crore from Rs 65 crore it spent last year. The company has also renewed its earlier one-year contract with film actress Tabu for another year.

An SIEL spokesperson told agencyfaqs! that the contract was renewed following a company research. The finding of the research indicated that the association of Tabu with the company's range of home appliances has had a positive impact on the brand and has helped it grow substantially last year. Tabu had endorsed Samsung's range of home appliances last year.

While the first phase of SIEL's corporate campaign for the year will break in February with a series of TV and print ads, more product-specific campaigns will follow later in the year.

Talking about SIEL's advertising strategy this year, the spokesperson said that the communication would be aimed at establishing SIEL's digital credentials in the Indian market. The campaign will harp on the "benefits" of digitalisation this year, while, last year, the task was to introduce the concept. While details about the campaign are not known, the baseline will be "Samsung products make your life more enjoyable".

"The idea is to move one step forward from what we did last year," said a SIEL executive. "Last year, the company had educated the consumer about digitalisation through its campaign ‘Samsung Digitall - everyone's invited'. This year we plan to communicate the benefits of digitalisation to the consumer. That is, from talking about technology alone, the idea is to convey the benefits of technology."

To put things into perspective, last month, the Korean consumer electronics giant reorganized its product portfolio between its two agencies, Mudra Communications and Triton Communications. Consequently, Mudra has lost Samsung's washing machine and microwave oven accounts to Triton, although it has managed to retain the refrigerator and colour monitor accounts. For its part, Triton has retained the air-conditioner and cellular phone accounts, but has had to forfeit Samsung's CTV, DVD player and laser printer accounts to Mudra.

As things stand now, Mudra handles colour televisions, refrigerators and DVDs, Triton has Samsung's air-conditioners, microwaves and washing machines business.

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