Discover how Samsung is revolutionizing advertising with cutting-edge AI and machine learning solutions. Hear from Michael Scott and Takashi Nakano about the latest advancements and how they’re transforming ad strategies across platforms.
In an exclusive Q&A, Michael Scott, Vice President, Head of Ad Sales, Revenue and Operations – North America at Samsung Ads, and Takashi Nakano, Senior Director of Business Development and Content Acquisitions at Samsung TV Plus, share insights into the groundbreaking AI advancements shaping the future of advertising at Samsung. From the expansion of their Smart Outcomes suite to the introduction of Smart Acquisition solutions, Samsung is setting new standards in ad performance and audience engagement.
These new AI-powered tools not only bridge campaigns across CTV and mobile but also optimize efficiency and deliver superior outcomes for advertisers. As Samsung continues to push the boundaries of innovation, discover how they leverage AI and machine learning to drive conversion, enhance targeting, and offer unparalleled advertising solutions.
Yakira Young: Both Michael Scott and Cathy Oh highlighted the role of AI in enhancing advertising solutions at Samsung. Can you share more about the recent innovations in AI technology and its integration into Samsung Ads advertising platforms? Can you explain how these AI tools work and the specific advantages they offer advertisers?
Michael Scott: At Samsung, we envision a future where intelligent, interconnected experiences enrich our lives, which is why we’re prioritizing AI as it is the cornerstone of our innovation.
Samsung Ads is expanding its suite of AI-powered performance solutions, Smart Outcomes, with new solutions. These new offerings come on the heels of the successful launch of Samsung Smart Audiences, combining the scale of Samsung’s ecosystem with the power of AI and machine learning to drive conversion. SMART Outcomes starts with your desired objective, be it app downloads, engagement, retention or purchase attribution and dynamically optimizes inventory to deliver your desired outcome.
Our new Smart Acquisition solution is designed to drive new user acquisition to the destination of your choice, be it mobile, web or on the TV. Launched initially for our streaming app advertisers, Samsung Smart Acquisition has delivered exceptional results in driving new app subscriptions on Samsung TVs. This solution is now scaled for your brand whether you are a pizza company, a DTC brand, or streaming media company. For example, if you are an advertiser with a mobile app looking to acquire new users or increase engagement, Smart Acquisitions leverages Samsung’s unique Smart TV real estate paired with our unique AI capabilities to acquire new users specifically for your mobile app. Through our partnerships with top MMPS, advertisers can also prove more ROI by measuring return on ad spend through our partnerships.
For advertisers, Samsung Ads’ AI-powered solutions help you improve efficiency, achieve outcomes across the entire sales funnel and ultimately make your media strategy smarter over time.
YY: Can you provide more details on the newly introduced Smart Acquisition and CTV to Mobile solutions? How do these innovations help advertisers bridge their campaigns across CTV and mobile and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of advertising campaigns?
MS: We know that as audiences fragment across platforms and devices, advertisers are facing the challenge of both missed reach and duplicated reach. Smart Acquisition helps solve for that by addressing fragmentation for advertisers aiming to reach their best audiences with greater efficiency – especially where they are most receptive and responsive. Not only does this optimize engagement and ROI, but it also streamlines performance monitoring and campaign refinement.
YY: Travis Scott Howe mentioned “Optimal Reach” for sharper audience targeting. How does this tool utilize Samsung’s proprietary data to improve advertising reach and effectiveness?
MS: Optimal Reach provides insights across linear and streaming to identify gaps in reach, unexposed audiences, and target “missed audiences’ at scale using machine learning through a single source solution that leverages a myriad of proprietary Samsung Adsdata signals, such as data from our proprietary viewer panel, TV & You, linear and in-app ACR data and more. Leveraging billions of data points across screens in-home, in hand, and on-the-go, our extensive proprietary dataset integrated into our machine learning engine stands unrivaled.
Lynne d Johnson: A swath of Samsung’s audiences are being categorized as Super Influencers. Who are those Super Influencers and why is that such a coveted audience for advertisers?
MS: According to a recent Advertising Research Foundation survey of over 50,000 people, Samsung’s audience has more spending power with a higher income than other OEM users – and they care about checking their financial standing on a regular basis. They are what the study calls “super influencers” when it comes to tech, electronics and video games.
These super influencers are loyal, well-educated, family-oriented (more likely to have children in the home), and are likely to use flight and hotel reward programs for travel. They are also actively engaged and, though they are busy, they make up for it by being more likely to shop and order food delivery online.
LdJ: Can you talk about how purchase attribution and engagement attribution help to dynamically optimize inventory to deliver advertisers desired outcomes? I think you guys call it Smart Outcomes, right?
MS: As marketers are increasingly tasked with accountability and efficiency, Samsung Ads’ outcome-driven solutions are based on advertisers’ most requested business outcomes.
Built on the undeniable scale and proprietary data sets, Smart Outcomes allows Samsung Ads to deliver result-driven campaigns capable of driving a variety of in-demand outcomes tied to key performance indicators (KPIs). These performance-focused solutions pull together planning and optimization tools across Samsung Adsproduct portfolio including pre-campaign insights tool Audience Advisor, AI-driven Smart Audiences, and the Samsung Pixel product amongst others.
YY: Samsung TV Plus is getting major league sports channels thanks to partnerships with MLB, AHL, Formula 1, and others. How do these collaborations align with your broader advertising and content strategy? How do you plan to attract sports fans and bring them deeper into the funnel?
Takashi Nakano: We remain focused on delivering a premium, seamless viewing experience where users can simply switch on and start watching.
FAST continues to take a hold as viewers’ preferred viewing vehicle, and sports leagues are responding to that demand. In fact, we’ve seen over 60% growth in time spent viewing year over year, showing that Samsung TV Plus, our FAST and AVOD service, is a tremendous engagement vehicle that keeps viewers coming back for more. As the premiere FAST service on Samsung TVs, Samsung TV Plus provides sports leagues with the flexibility they need to deliver their local and national live games, pre-and-post-game coverage, documentaries, and everything in between to engaged sports fans with the tech that is required at scale.
With our all-new, premium sports partnerships, we’re launching exclusive and first-to-FAST offerings that will deliver more of the content fans want, across the most in-demand Sports category. Our new partnerships will bring the MLB, the AHL the Ontario Reign, ONE Championship TV, the PGA TOUR, and Formula 1 to all Samsung device owners with access to extensive free content offerings, and will make some key sporting event, free of cost to all Samsung device owners.
With Samsung TV Plus, we’re continuing to build a vast, unrivaled library of brand safe, quality content that viewers want to watch, with over 2,600 ad-supported channels globally, and nearly 500 national and local channels in the US.
YY: Starting next month, advertisers can sponsor the Samsung News app on Galaxy devices. What does this mean in terms of ad placement and visibility for advertisers? And how will the Olympics feature within news services benefit both users and advertisers?
MS: With roadblocks that include both display and video ads in its top five editorial news sections, advertisers can benefit from prime ad placement for their campaigns, reaching a wider audience base across diverse platforms. Think of the opportunity here – advertisers can reach their specific target audience watching their favorite show on Samsung TV Plus on the big screen, and then re-engage them with a tailored message later in the day when they’re on-the-go on their mobile phones.
Additionally, the Samsung News Galaxy mobile app is set to feature curated, up-to-the-minute Olympic content this summer in partnership with the International Olympic Committee. This new offering comes at a pivotal time where live sports continue to dominate as a major opportunity for reaching new audiences, gaining deeper insights and delivering innovative ad experiences.