Samsung recently hit the airwaves with a new advertisement for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. The ad appears to have drawn inspiration from Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” campaign, as Samsung calls its commercial, “Captured on Galaxy S7.” If you head over to YouTube and check the comment section, both Samsung and Apple fans are being rather vocal about their thoughts on the obvious “inspiration” Samsung has taken from its rival in this marketing campaign.
Apple has run its “Shot on iPhone” campaign for more than a year, and it has been a major success. The campaign won an award for best entry in the outdoor category at last year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. It’s no wonder Samsung would want a piece of that cake, but in applying Apple’s theme, it seems to have lost one of the campaign’s most integral components. Personality.
Samsung doesn’t claim that the video was shot by actual Galaxy S7 owners. Even though the footage was captured in 4K Ultra HD video on a Galaxy S7, the shots are eerily stable and professional. In contrast, Apple brought along personality in its ad by including consumer material in the campaign to make it feel more human and real. Samsung’s footage of mountains, people biking, and time-lapses of urban landscapes all looks fantastic, but its ad hardly seems as down to Earth as Apple’s approach.
Other companies including Motorola and Huawei have imitated the “Shot on iPhone” ads in presentations and their own marketing campaigns without much success before. Samsung is just the latest brand to try it out. However, using footage from the actual camera advertised isn’t a new concept to Samsung, the company used that technique back in 2013 to market its Samsung Galaxy Camera.
