Samsung has found a playful way to put the Galaxy Z Fold8 at the centre of a new campaign by recruiting someone who shares a very familiar name.
The campaign features Tim Cook, a real estate agent from Palmerston North, New Zealand, rather than Apple CEO Tim Cook. Created for Samsung New Zealand, the campaign uses the name similarity as its central idea while putting the Galaxy Z Fold8 in the hands of the other Tim Cook.
The campaign video opens with the line, Tim Cook has an announcement. And for once, it’s about Galaxy, before introducing the real estate agent and showing him with the Galaxy Z Fold8.
Instead of directly featuring Apple’s CEO, Samsung builds the campaign around the coincidence of another person having the same name.
The featured Tim Cook works as a property agent with Harcourts in Palmerston North. His appearance gives Samsung a simple way to reference its biggest rival without making the campaign dependent on a traditional comparison between the two companies.
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The Galaxy Z Fold8 remains the focus throughout the campaign, with the Tim Cook reference serving as the creative hook for the advertisement.
The campaign also fits into Samsung’s broader advertising history of using Apple and the iPhone as reference points in its marketing. Here, the joke is built around the identity of Apple’s CEO, turning a familiar name into a promotional device for Samsung’s foldable phone.
The campaign comes as Samsung continues promoting the Galaxy Z Fold8, its latest book style foldable smartphone.
Rather than focusing on a detailed product comparison, the advertisement uses the Tim Cook concept to draw attention to the device and Samsung’s position in the foldable smartphone market.
The campaign therefore combines a recognisable name, a competitor reference and Samsung’s foldable phone into a short social media focused creative.
With the other Tim Cook holding the Galaxy Z Fold8, Samsung turns what could have been a simple name coincidence into the central creative idea of the campaign.
