Samsung’s troll doesn’t dampen #iPhone6S launch

Samsung isn’t letting Apple have all the attention today.

With the iPhone 6S finally hitting store shelves today across the world, its number one competitor extended its long-form troll campaign against Apple. Samsung deployed workers to an Apple store in London this morning to hand out pillows and blankets to shoppers camping out for the news device.

That sounds sweet, but Samsung clearly had ulterior motives, so says Boy Genius Report.

Samsung workers disguised themselves as Apple workers, wearing similarly blue-colored shirts and didn’t identify themselves. The pillows also had a cryptic hashtag stitched on them too, BGR writes:

As it turns out, #NextIsNew is a Samsung hashtag, and the company was trying to make Apple fans look stupid by advertising a Samsung marketing scheme while waiting in line for an iPhone 6s.

For those smart enough to search the hashtag on Twitter, this sponsored tweet appears first:

Although the campaign might have sounded clever in Samsung’s meetings, Twitter users were quick to trash it:

Yikes! Despite Samsung’s attempt to shift some of the attention away from hyped iPhone 6S launch, it didn’t make a dent: The hashtag #iPhone6s trended all morning. Topsy measures 30,000 tweets using the hashtag within the past 24 hours, mostly from excited fans tweeting pictures of the enormous lines outside of Apple locations:

The iPhone 6S is expected to be Apple’s biggest launch yet with analysts predicting 12 to 13 million units being sold this weekend alone, numbers that Samsung has the right to be bitter over.

Photo via Apple.

https://digiday.com/?p=137787

More in Marketing

Hyve Group buys the Possible conference, and will add a meeting element to it in the future

Hyve Group, which owns such events as ShopTalk and FinTech Meetup, has agreed to purchase Beyond Ordinary Events, the organizing body behind Possible.

Agencies and marketers point to TikTok in the running to win ‘first real social Olympics’

The video platform is a crucial part of paid social plans this summer, say advertisers and agency execs.

Where Kamala Harris and Donald Trump stand on big tech issues

The next U.S. president is going to have a tough job of reining in social media companies’ dominance and power enough to satisfy lawmakers and users, while still encouraging free speech, privacy and innovation.