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Samsung Steps Up Audio Focus With Ad Campaign

NEW YORK –

Samsung is launching its first audiospecific
advertising campaigns this
year to make consumers more aware
of its expanding home-audio presence
and further build its home audio
share.

“Consumers think of us as being
a leader in TVs, smartphones and
appliances, but they don’t recognize
us as an audio company,” said
Joe Stinziano, home entertainment
senior VP at Samsung Electronics
America.

In the first phase of the ad campaign,
Samsung will run two print
advertisements in rotation in May
through August magazines — one
each for the $799-suggested DAE750
audio dock and the $999-suggested
HT-E6730W Blu-ray 3D 7.1
HTiB, a spokesperson said. Both are
the company’s top-end products in
those categories and feature vacuum-
tube preamp stages. The ads will
appear in Widescreen Review, Home Theater, Electronic
House, Tell, Sound and Vision, Popular Science
and Popular Mechanics.

The print ads will be accompanied by web ads starting
in May.

The May through August campaign
will be followed, likely in the
fall, another spokesperson said. Like
last year, the company also plans fall
ads that mainly promote TVs but also
include soundbars and HTiBs, she
said.

The size of the ad budget was not
disclosed.

In recent years, Samsung stepped
up its audio presence and is meeting
its “very aggressive goals,” Stinziano
told TWICE. Long a player in HTiBs,
Samsung entered the soundbar
market several years ago, added
A/V receivers in 2010, and this year
launched its first docking speakers.
All docking speakers feature stereo
Bluetooth along with a dock for
Apple’s mobile devices and a charging
dock for select Samsung mobile
devices. Two docking speakers
combine embedded Wi-Fi with the Apple Airplay and DLNA streaming technologies.

With the launch of the vacuum-tube
products, “we’re getting into the premium
segment of audio,”
Stinziano noted.

In ramping up its
audio emphasis, the
company took No. 1
share in unit and dollar
sell-through in integrated
HTiBs in 2009,
and in 2011, the company
maintained its top
unit and dollar share,
he said. In soundbars,
the company fluctuated
in 2011 between the
number one and two
positions in dollar sellthrough.

The company has performed
well in these two
categories, Stinziano
contended, because of
great value, innovative designs and the
tendency by consumers to “match their
audio systems with their TV [brand].”

Samsung has stepped up its audio
focus because “we have some unique
things to bring to the market,” he added.
One such thing is a Sound Share feature
appearing in the top two wireless docking
speakers at $449
and $799. These docking
speakers use stereo
Bluetooth to stream
music and TV-program
audio from select Bluetooth-
equipped Samsung
TVs. With this
feature, consumers can
stream a TV’s Internet
music services to another
room or listen to
TV programming in an
adjacent room without
turning up the TV’s volume,
Stinziano said.

In 2013, Samsung
“will come back into
the receiver space with
more focus and innovation,”
having chosen to
focus on wireless docking speakers and
HTiBs in 2012, Stinziano said. The company
is carrying over two AVRs this year,
including a Blu-ray-equipped model.

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