Samsung targets business customers with new marketing campaign across 9 key countries

Not content with taking the top spot in the consumer smartphone market worldwide, Samsung is turning its attention — and sizeable marketing budget — to the business-to-business (B2B) space after unveiling a global marketing campaign for business users.

The launch of the campaign — ‘New Business Experience’ — comes the same day that reports suggested that the White House is ready to swap its fleet of BlackBerry smartphones for a more flexible option that lets employees choose from Samsung’s Galaxy range, or Apple’s iPhone and iPad products.

The US government is a prized customer for struggling BlackBerry and any change would be symbolic of a wider trend towards traditionally consumer-centric devices in the workplace. That’s exactly the opportunity that Samsung is furthering its investment in.

To capitalize on the growth of BYOD (bring your own device) policies and rising adoption of smartphones, the New Business Experience campaign is hitting nine global markets — the US, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, China, Singapore, Russia and Brazil — featuring print, video and Web advertising spots and a dedicated website for business customers.

The Korea-based company is targeting a range of vertical industries, including retail, hospitality, healthcare, education and small/medium businesses. The ads will promote Samsung’s smartphone and tablet devices by using “traditional business activity with an unexpected scenario”, the company says.

Samsung has, of course, run similar advertising in the past — including the light-hearted ‘Unicorn’ mini series that featured a fictional design studio using its SAFE technology for business — but the new campaign is likely to be a lot drier and to the point, with less chance of appearances from its roster of celebs, such as movie producer Tim Burton.

Samsung is dedicating huge sums to advertising generally. The Korean phone-maker is estimated to have spent $401 million advertising its devices to consumers in the US last year, beating even the $333 million budget Apple used. That was a big change on 2011, when Apple’s spend was triple that of Samsung.

The spending shows no sign of stopping, and the Korean firm has already run big ad splashes at the Super Bowl, the Academy Awards and Grammy Awards thus far in 2013.

While the funding for the B2B campaign is unlikely to be so lavish, Samsung will put struggling BlackBerry under more pressure for its key customer base. Likewise, Apple and other consumers brands that are expanding their targeting to business users, will also face a greater challenge from the world’s largest smartphone maker.

Samsung posted record profits of $6.4 billion for the first quarter of 2013, having sold an estimated 69.4 million units, up 56 percent year-on-year. Now it is eyeing more growth via the lucrative business sector.

Headline image via Greg Wood /Getty Images