Samsung Jumping Into The Picture

The Forbes posted an article about Samsung's digital camera as follows:

Electronics giant ramps up its digital camera marketing.

When TV watchers turn on the tube this fall, they'll see a new Samsung commercial that shows girls--and a gorilla--holding cameras in front of their faces, doing what everyone seems to be doing these days: taking pictures of themselves.

Samsung Electronics is spending some $50 million on a year-long ad blitz to promote its new DualView cameras that give consumers an easy way to take self portraits--they have a display screen in the front and one in the back. The company, a subsidiary of the Korean electronics giant, is partnering with retail chains Best Buy and B&H to push its new touchscreen cameras (priced between $300 and $350) into consumers' hands. The campaign, which rolls out Sept. 17, includes print and online ads. TV spots will air on cable and broadcast TV networks such as NBC, CBS and Fox until the end of October, when holiday ads with retailers will begin.

The advertising campaign, from Leo Burnett in Chicago, marks Samsung's effort to expand its business beyond flat screens and mobile phones. The U.S. digital imaging market, largely dominated by Sony, Canon and Nikon, totaled an estimated $5 billion last year. Samsung's vice president of digital imaging marketing, Reid Sullivan, says the company is aiming to gain a 20% market share in the U.S. by 2012, up from its current 6%.

"With everyone--kids and parents--uploading photos these days, we had no decision but to jump further into the market," says Sullivan. The camera is targeted toward teens, who snap self-images for uploads to their blogs and social networking sites, and to parents, who may appreciate the camera's child-friendly features, Sullivan says. The DualView's child mode displays a clown cartoon on the camera's front screen to grab children's attention.

Samsung expects to kick off another campaign of similar size in 2010. "We want to leave the other competitors licking their wounds," Sullivan says.