Samsung’s ads are working, but not as well as it wants

Relentless advertising has helped Samsung take top spot in the global smartphone market, but it’s also given the company another title: it’s one of the biggest ad spenders around. According to Reuters, Samsung spends a far larger percentage of its annual revenue on promotion than any of the world’s other top-20 companies by sales. Last year, it reportedly spent $4.3 billion on ads — thoroughly dwarfing Apple’s spending of just $1 billion — and this year, Samsung is expected to vastly exceed that with spending of around $14 billion on promotion.

But Reuters reports that the huge marketing push hasn’t necessarily been effective. A number of Samsung’s campaigns and promotions have been panned, and they still haven’t perfectly sold consumers on the image of innovation that it’s looking for. “When your brand doesn’t have a clear identity, as is the case with Samsung, to keep spending is probably the best strategy,” Moon Ji-hun, managing director at brand consultant Interbrand, tells Reuters. Reuters takes a look at Samsung’s latest advertising efforts — including its planned push of the poorly reviewed Galaxy Gear smartwatch — and reports that so much spending may be more needed for a company with such varied products.