A flashmob protest team showed up at an Apple Store in Sydney yesterday and before you start looking at Samsung who will obviously be the prime suspect here but that is yet to be confirmed. However if it was the South Korean electronics giant at work, it seems to have turned up its marketing a notch with reports about advertising agencies sending two black buses with branding of the protest to the Apple Store in Sydney, Australia apparently shouting to the customers inside, to ‘Wake Up’. This might seem to be a way for the company to cause a stir and generate more buzz for its upcoming flagship phone said to launch on May 3rd a long way from Australia in London. The groups of protestors who appeared suddenly were dressed in black in similarly colored buses and walked right up to the Apple Store while chanting “wake up” and holding up black colored placards with the same words brandished on it.
As it was, the protest was recorded by an Australian blogger “who happened to be present” at the time (he says) but it is just a little odd because the protest seemed to confuse him as it probably did the same to others. The fact that you’re in an Apple store would most likely mean that you are probably not going to know why Samsung wants you to “wake up” but I’m sure there were reasons only the advertising agencies in the know can elaborate on. After some digging, Australian marketing blog Mumbrella revealed that the campaign could be traced back to a domestic creative agency called Tongue which is responsible for a website that is counting down the number of seconds to a launch of some sort.
For now, there is no concrete reason as to what the end of the countdown will bring but it is set to end at 3pm on May 6 which is three days after the Samsung Galaxy S3 launches and this might be suggesting that it is the time the much anticipated smartphone will be landing for Australian markets but that is just speculation for now. Although the method that is used here might seem a little unorthodox to many of us, it is the method that someone seems to have chosen to spread the word and create some hype. But since the message wasn’t very clear to begin with maybe the only buzz that will be spread is one of a confusing marketing campaign. To clarify this story, there is still no confirmation about what the flashmob was actually about. This post is about the protest and how it could be Samsung behind it although that is still not a surety.
———–Update————
Samsung has gone on record with the folks over at Slashgear (via AppleInsider) and disassociated itself with the above mentioned flashmob claiming that they had nothing whatsoever to do with it.
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