The Real Value In Ellen Selfie? Samsung’s CMO: Helping Make Moment Of “Joy”

Samsung got huge attention when Ellen DeGeneres did her now famous Twitter-breaking all-star selfie at the Oscars. But Samsung USA’s chief marketing officer says what’s more important wasn’t that the Samsung phone was used but that Samsung helped create a moment of real joy. “The exact phone almost doesn’t matter,” said Samsung USA CMO Todd Pendleton […]

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Samsung got huge attention when Ellen DeGeneres did her now famous Twitter-breaking all-star selfie at the Oscars. But Samsung USA’s chief marketing officer says what’s more important wasn’t that the Samsung phone was used but that Samsung helped create a moment of real joy.

“The exact phone almost doesn’t matter,” said Samsung USA CMO Todd Pendleton at the 4A’s Transformation conference today. ‘You can see the joy on their faces.”

The selfie moment was a “planned unplanned moment,” in that Ellen was supposed to do a selfie with Meryl Streep, but Samsung — in keeping with an “authentic” approach Pendleton says Samsung tries to maintain — didn’t script things out exactly. Do such things means “you don’t let the magic come in the room.”

As a result, the selfie spiraled into a giant group event among the stars, who honestly seemed happy just to be having fun, the joy visible on their faces, Pendleton said.

Below, a bit more from Pendleton from our live blog:


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Danny Sullivan
Contributor
Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land, MarTech, and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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