I am in Europe at the moment and whether you are watching a German, Italian or Austrian TV channel that is covering the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics you cannot help noticing the sea of advertising for Samsung products.
Apart from another Russian stuff up with the fifth ring of the Olympic rings failing to light up being topical with broadcasters
news channels were running story after story after allegations were made that Samsung who is an official games sponsor demanded that athletes cover up their iPhones and other non-Samsung logos during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
The claim was denied but it did not stop the European press leading with the story as part of their Winter Olympics coverage.
Samsung is heavily involved in the games, giving every athlete a Galaxy Note 3, sending a “Galaxy Team” of 80 athletes around the world on a large-scale marketing campaign, flying student bloggers to Sochi and releasing a Samsung Wireless Olympic Works app for fans.
The Swiss team told German TV that the gift of a new Galaxy Note 3 came with a catch and that hat no other logos, iPhone or otherwise, appear on-camera during the Opening Ceremony. Athletes – and only athletes – have even been instructed to physically cover their iPhone’s during the opening ceremony.
The response from Samsung was swift “Samsung has not been involved in any decisions related to branding on products used by athletes to the Games,” a Samsung spokesperson said.
During the opening ceremony athletes from the Swiss, Russian and German teams were seen using Samsung Galaxy phones with white covers while several US athletes were seen using iPhone’s.
Samsung claimed that “All commercial marketing around the Games is overseen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).”
The sponsorship of the games comes ahead of the launch of a new Samsung Galaxy S5 which is supposed to pack a 4K screen display also missing from the new smartphone will be home button seen in previous Galaxy phones.
The new Samsung Galaxy S5 render is created by designer Sayed Mujtaba, who imagined the upcoming Samsung flagship phone to pack high end features. The design is wider compared to its predecessors but, definitely, thinner as it is only 6.95 mm in size, which will make the iPhone 5S thick. The body is made out of a combination of metal and glass.
The concept’s screen will pack a smaller 4.2 inch screen but will have 4K pixel resolution, according to Concept-Phones.com. The designer removed the usual home button and replaced it with capacitive buttons. At the back, the handset sports a 16 megapixels camera, just like what the rumours say.
