Galaxy Vs iPhone Ads: Trev Takes Sides

Prologue: The world was young and the internet was wee. People typed either with a keyboard or by pressing the living daylights out of the numbers on their flip phones. A simple time. Little did anyone know, things were about to get much more touchy feely.

Fast forward to today and I feel archaic for writing my blogs on my computer rather than on my ultra-fast super-deluxe mega-millions jackpot winning IQ over 9000 smartphone touch screen masterpiece. Or you could call it a Galaxy s8, that's up to you. My bluetooth sees my phone as Trevular Sweet but that's besides the point. somehow between paragraph one and paragraph two, people went from having phones without discernible names to either being team iPhone or team Galaxy. Both Apple and Samsung have become powerhouses in their own spaces but have come out as rivals in the phone biz, and people who have chosen their side seem to never want to change to the other. So why do they still advertise? Who does it better? Why haven't you thought of a pun for your phone name like me? Not all these questions will be addressed by me but they all deserve answers. Let us begin.

A good starting point for this is to actually at the end. Here are one of the most recent ads from both companies I found on iSpot.tv

The next question is more complicated. Who's doing it better? Based on the strategic positions the two are taking in their ads, it looks like Apple is winning. They're on defense right now, they're building their brand without even having to mention Galaxy. They can take more risk with higher focus on creativity and emotion tethering while focusing on one feature. Samsung on the other hand is choosing to use part of their time to mention iPhones so that they can attempt to win in the comparison. The rest of the time they have to throw in as much info about the phone as possible, boiling it down to just speed. Even if an iPhone is being shown in a negative light, it's an old version and it's still being brought up. iPhone dominates the conversation.

Does market share really answer the question? Is Apple automatically making better ads because they have more freedom? I'm not so sure. The Galaxy ad has a more complex theme about needing a phone but also having to work around the faults of your phone. The iPhone ad has a basic theme of fun and ease. Neither are new concepts but I would definitely say Samsung is more likely to make me think after seeing that ad than Apple would with theirs. When you willingly decide to continue the conversation that an ad introduces, you're giving them free screen time so to speak. The conversation is dominated by iPhones but the direction is being led by Samsung. How strong their argument impacts you really determines the winner here.

When it comes to me, even though I have always had various Android phones since their inception, they really locked it down for me after I saw this ad:

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