Samsung relying on England partnership for next #OscarSelfie moment

When England touch down in Rio later this summer they’ll carrying the latest Samsung Galaxy smartphone thanks to a new partnership with the South Koren tech giant.

The deal, which makes Samsung the official consumer electronics and smartphone supplier to the team for the tournament, means that the squad of 23 will all be given Samsung Galaxy S5 phones, which will come bundled with a host of health-related features.

By putting their products in the hands of influencers like the England World Cup team Samsung are hoping to make advocates out of them and, hopefully, recreate a huge moment like the Oscars selfie.

Speaking to marketingmagazine.co.uk, Samsung UK and Ireland marketing director Ines van Gennip said: “There are always opportunities, specifically in the UK, where you do something that creates a lot of excitement with one big bang. How can we do something like that [Oscars selfie] again in the UK and do it even better?”

The announcement of this link up was made despite the fact that Samsung are not one of sponsors of the World Cup, however van Gennip have batted away accusations that this is an attempt at ambush marketing: “It is absolutely not [an ambush marketing campaign]. It has a very close link to the S5 and that is why it already started months ago. We are not a World Cup sponsor, so we would never communicate or associate ourselves with the World Cup because that wouldn’t be fair.

“It has an element of football in it, but it is all about bringing the features of the S5 to life and creating a communication platform that runs for 10 months. It’s not just ambush marketing because that would have to be very short and very targeted.”

This assurance comes after minor scandal broke out at the last tournament when Bavaria beer enlisted the help of three dozen orange-clad South African women and, bizarrely, ITV pundit Robbie Earle, to surreptitious promote their lager during the Netherlands versus Denmark. Fifa’s heavy-handed reaction, which led a spokesman for Bavaria to question whether the had a monopoly on the colour orange, left brands in no doubt that if their name wasn’t on the list then they were not welcome.