Samsung Tries to Capitalize on iPhone Frenzy with Ads on Apple Coverage

Tech news sites on Tuesday were awash with coverage of Apple's latest iPhone announcement -- and with ads from Apple rival Samsung. As Apple's foremost smartphone competitor, Samsung plastered well-timed banners across several of the prominent outlets reporting on the new iPhone, including The New York Times, Business Insider, Bloomberg and The Verge. The Samsung advertising on most of the sites, a horizontal banner atop the page paired with another spot below, closed with an image of the device and the latest variation of its nearly-two-year-old "Next Big Thing" tagline. Samsung not only advertised near coverage of Apple's event but more or less advertised that coverage itself. Samsung sponsors Business Insider's The Hive section, which aggregates popular headlines. To no one's surprise, an especially hot topic for The Hive on Tuesday was Apple's news, so The Hive widget running on Business Insider's homepage pinned "Apple iPhone Event Live Blog" atop the section's other headlines, all of which happened to be displayed on a Samsung Galaxy S4 and labeled "Sponsored by Samsung Galaxy S4." Samsung spent $880.2 million on U.S. advertising in 2012, including $40.5 million on online display ads, according to Ad Age DataCenter. Samsung wasn't the only smartphone brand running prominent ads on Apple's big day. Motorola touted the Moto X on Wired's and Ars Technica's home pages. In particular the Google-owned hardware manufacturer called attention to the Moto X's customizable appearance, including a slight dig at the iPhone's two options for color: black and white. Of course then on Tuesday Apple announced a third color choice, gold, as well as a lower-end iPhone line with four colors. Motorola has planned an extensive advertising campaign to raise awareness of the Moto X, including spreads in fashion magazines and a presence on Pinterest. But the company has said it doesn't plan to outspend Apple or Samsung on the device's advertising. Not to be left out, LG ran a pair of animated ads on Ars Technica's live blog of the Apple event, trying to boost the profile of its G2 smartphone. And T-Mobile on Tuesday ran takeover ads on CNET's home page, promoting its recently-announced Jump program, under which consumers pay $10 extra a month for the ability to swap out their phones for new ones twice a year. Today, CNET's iPhone coverage was sponsored by -- you guessed it -- Samsung.

Samsung Tries to Capitalize on iPhone Frenzy with Ads on Apple Coverage

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