Consumer electronics and IT retailers in Australia are set to benefit from a multimillion dollar advertising spending spree by Apple, Samsung and Microsoft running into the peak Xmas buying period.Globally the big three companies a set to launch a $5bn advertising blitz in the run-up to Christmas, in an effort to lure consumers to a range of new products including Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS, new tablets and smartphones and from Apple a new mini iPad.
Microsoft alone will spend an estimated $1.5bn to $1.8bn on the launch of Windows 8, according to analysts, a sum media analyst Robert Enderle says “is on a scale you don’t see outside US presidential elections”.
Also set to join the marketing blitz is Google, who has previously ignored traditional media having grown rich through online marketing via their own search engine and word of mouth.
Google has trebled its spend to $1.4bn in three years according to analysts.
The Guardian newspaper recently said the annual reports for eight of the largest technology advertisers, from chip maker Intel to Sony, Samsung, Nokia, Google and Apple, show they spent a combined $15bn promoting themselves in their most recent financial year. Samsung, whose 2011 budget was $2.7bn, spent some of those dollars promoting televisions as well as handsets, and a large chunk of Sony’s $4.5bn is reserved for marketing its Hollywood films.
But with promotional budgets growing more than 50% a year at some firms, total spend is likely to be significantly higher this year. Add in the outlay for promoting the arrival of 4G by various network operators, and the global spend for all things mobile could well reach $5bn in the final three months of 2012, says Benedict Evans at the research firm Enders Analysis.
Scott Browning the Marketing Director of JB Hi Fi is confident that with several major brands competing for market share during the last quarter traffic into retail stores will rise.
He believes there are several driving factors that will come into play in the last quarter including new large screen TVs, the launch of Windows 8 along with new tablets and PCs, as well as new Apple products.
One of the companies banking on success is Microsoft who is desperate to woo consumers to their Windows 8 OS and in particular their Windows 8 smartphones.
Windows 8, which has been reinvented for the touch screen and considered the most radical redesign since the release of Windows 95, goes on sale on Friday, along with Microsoft’s Surface tablet. On 29 October, its smartphone software goes live, followed by new Windows phones from Samsung and HTC, as well as the struggling Nokia phone Company.
The Guardian said Samsung and Apple will use their superior marketing firepower to retain the top two spots. The South Korean group’s major launches of 2012 have already happened, but the Galaxy SIII phone, which will come in a “mini” size, and its 4G compatible version, will be given the hard sell, as will tablets in various sizes. Samsung may have been ordered to pay Apple $1bn in damages for infringing iPhone patents, but the legal bill will be more than matched by media outlay.
Apple will not be far behind. Its spend doubled from $500m in 2009 to $933m last year, and the Christmas quarter will see it pushing the global rollout of the iPhone 5, the new iPad and the supposedly imminent launch of the iPad mini.
