Samsung most talked about at MWC 2015, Apple second – report

A digital brand intelligence report has revealed the launch of the Galaxy S6 saw Samsung become the most talked about brand at Mobile World Congress. When considering social media discussions, reports, news coverage, mobile views and more, the Korean tech giant dominated coverage of this year’s show in Barcelona – according to digital marketing tech firm Amobee Brand Intelligence.

Telecoms.com has been at MWC all week covering a number of the launches and exclusive interviews coming out of the show, and several high profile device launches have appeared to dominate this year’s industry centrepiece. What is simultaneously surprising and unsurprising is that Apple, according to Amobee, was the brand most associated with MWC, despite not actually attending the event. Perhaps the publicity around the reveal of Apple’s first wearable, Apple Watch, ahead of its conveniently-timed press event on the 9th March achieved the same marketing objectives attending MWC itself would.

2015 has increasingly been considered the year where wearables really take off into the market, and MWC saw the Huawei Watch, Pebble Time and the LG Watch Urbane get significant air time.

Amobee rated the next-best products being discussed at the show, and revealed that Samsung Pay, the mobile payments offering from Samsung following its recent acquisition of Loop Pay, garnered 36% as much attention in relation to the buzz whipped up around the S6 and S6 Edge. HTC One M9, meanwhile, got about two thirds of the attention with 66%. As previously alluded to, Apple Watch was discussed about 37% as much as the S6 and S6 Edge, despite Apple’s lack of attendance.

David Barker, Amobee’s EMEA managing director, says this is indicative of the “long shadow” Apple casts over everything that happens in tech.

“As it happens with nearly every tech convention, Apple cast a long shadow over the event,” he said. “There was 37% as much MWC related consumption around Apple Watch as the S6 Edge, with the whole point being Apple has no presence at the conference. They’ve scheduled a ‘Spring forward’ event for March 9 where the remaining details around the Apple Watch launch are expected to be announced. Scheduling the announcement so close to MWC without actually having it there fits into Apple’s ”it’s not TV, it’s HBO” approach to differentiating themselves from competitors.”

In total, Apple as a brand were talked about 76% as much as Samsung. Their marketers must be chuffed, and expecting a bonus.