A line that argued with a queue
Samsung Mobile USA introduced a new campaign platform on 23 November 2011 under the line "The Next Big Thing Is Already Here".1 The work came from 72andSunny in Los Angeles and premiered on Samsung Mobile USA's Facebook page, with the television debut the following day, Thanksgiving, inside the Fox and CBS National Football League broadcasts.1, 2 It then ran through college football Saturdays until Christmas Day in fifteen and thirty second cuts.1
The launch film opened on a pavement queue. People had been waiting outside a store for hours for a phone that was never named and never shown. Owners of the Galaxy S II walked past them, using the device the queue had not yet been sold.1 No specification was quoted. The argument was carried entirely by who was standing where.
Selling the owner rather than the object
The strategic move was to stop describing the product and start describing the person holding it. Samsung had a large installed base of Galaxy owners and comparatively little cultural presence in the United States. The campaign converted the first asset into a remedy for the second. Todd Pendleton, then chief marketing officer of Samsung Mobile USA, framed it plainly at launch: "The next big thing is already here. You can have the latest, most innovative device without waiting in line."1, 3
Brian Wallace, vice president of strategic marketing, described the mechanism the campaign was built to exploit. "We want to use the enthusiasm and word-of-mouth buzz ... to our advantage to educate consumers in a fun and new way."1 Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Mobile, supplied the commercial footing: "The Galaxy S II has already shown its leadership and success through tremendous reviews and sales."1
The refusal to name the competitor had a structural effect. Comparative advertising in the smartphone category had until then mostly meant specification tables, and specification tables invite a reply in kind. By showing a queue instead, the campaign made its case in a form the rival could not answer without confirming the premise. The people waiting were not criticised. They were simply shown to be waiting, and the film left the reader of the image to decide what that meant.
Who made it
The 2011 film was credited to 72andSunny with John Boiler as executive creative director, Tim Wolfe as creative director and copywriter, Bryan Rowles as creative director and designer, Jake Kahana as designer and Sam Baerwald as director of film production.2 It was directed by Bobby Farrelly through Rabbit Content, cut at Cut+Run and graded by Stefan Sonnenfeld at Company 3.2 The work took a bronze for copywriting at the A-List Awards Hollywood in 2013.2
The 2012 sequel carried a partly different team, with Jason Norcross as executive creative director and Barton Corley as creative director and writer, alongside James Townsend and Go Wakimoto on the Samsung side.4
Source: Machinimadotcom Youtube
Escalation across three years
In September 2012 the queue returned, this time outside a store selling a phone released the same month.4 In February 2013 Samsung took the platform to Super Bowl XLVII with a film about the difficulty of making an advertisement that avoids naming a competitor, featuring Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Bob Odenkirk and LeBron James.3 The joke was the constraint itself. Later that year the platform absorbed a distribution deal with Jay-Z around the album Magna Carta Holy Grail, extending the line from broadcast into music release mechanics.3
What the campaign moved
The commercial context was substantial. Samsung spent 401 million United States dollars on smartphone advertising in the United States in 2012, ahead of its principal competitor.5 The Galaxy S II passed 20 million units in ten months, a figure Samsung announced in February 2012.5
The brand measurement moved with it. Interbrand valued Samsung at 32.9 billion dollars in 2012, a rise of 40 per cent against a top hundred average of 10 per cent, and placed it ninth, its first entry into the global top ten.6 The following year it ranked eighth at 39.6 billion dollars, and in 2014 seventh at 45.5 billion.6 Samsung published each of those results through its own newsroom.6
Evidence of the campaign's competitive effect surfaced from an unusual direction. In the second Apple v. Samsung trial, opening on 1 April 2014, Samsung's counsel told the court that the advertising "drove Apple crazy", and internal Apple documents discussing marketing pressure from Android and Samsung were entered into evidence.7 The campaign is also a logged Effie North America case for 2013.7
The line was retired later in the decade. By 2017 Samsung had replaced it with the platform Do What You Can't, a broader statement about the company rather than a comparison with a single rival.8 What "The Next Big Thing Is Already Here" left behind was a demonstration that a challenger does not always need a new claim. Sometimes it needs a way of pointing at the people who have already agreed with it.
Written with AI assistance, edited by a human. Find out more about our Use of AI.
1. Samsung Mobile, press release "Samsung Mobile Unveils “The Next Big Thing is Already Here” Ad Campaign Promoting Success and Leadership of Award-Winning Galaxy S II Smartphone Portfolio", Business Wire, 23 November 2011. The Business Wire permalink no longer serves the release (it returned the newsroom index on 1 October 2026), so the release was read in its reproduction by TalkAndroid, Robert Nazarian, "Samsung commercial ‘The Next Big Thing is Already Here’ to run on Facebook and during football games", 23 November 2011, off whitelist. Together they are the source for the launch on 23 November 2011 with the film first shown on Samsung Mobile's Facebook page, the television premiere during the Thanksgiving Day NFL games on Fox and CBS, the run through college football games until Christmas Day, the shortened 15 and 30 second versions, the film setting Galaxy S II owners against people waiting in line for a competitor's phone, the title of Todd Pendleton as chief marketing officer for Samsung Mobile and his words "The next big thing is already here" and "you can have the latest, most innovative device without waiting in line", which the release joins into one sentence with a dash, and the title of Dale Sohn as president of Samsung Mobile and his words "The Galaxy S II has already shown its leadership and success through tremendous reviews and sales." https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20111123005422/en/Samsung-Mobile-Unveils-Big-Thing-Ad-Campaign https://www.talkandroid.com/74809-samsung-commercial-the-next-big-thing-is-already-here-to-run-on-facebook-and-during-football-games/ Also MediaPost Marketing Daily, Aaron Baar, "Samsung Mobile Campaign Mocks ‘Gotta Haves’", 24 November 2011, off whitelist, for the film's people lined up outside technology boutiques, discussing the device they are waiting for until they see a Galaxy S II in use, for the Facebook start on the Wednesday and the move to the Thanksgiving Day NFL broadcasts, and for Brian Wallace, Samsung Mobile's vice president of strategic marketing, telling Marketing Daily "We want to use the enthusiasm and word-of-mouth buzz … to our advantage to educate consumers in a fun and new way"; the body quotes the sentence with the omission marked. https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/162948/samsung-mobile-campaign-mocks-gotta-haves.html
2. Ads of the World, "The Next Big Thing", Samsung, November 2011, off whitelist, for the agency 72andSunny and the 2011 credits: John Boiler as executive creative director, Tim Wolfe as creative director and copywriter, Bryan Rowles as creative director and designer, Jake Kahana as designer, Sam Baerwald as director of film production, Rabbit Content as production company with Bobby Farrelly as director, Cut + Run as editorial company, and the colourist listed as "Stefan Sonnenfelt @ CO3", whom the body names as Stefan Sonnenfeld at Company 3. https://www.adsoftheworld.com/campaigns/the-next-big-thing Also LBBOnline, "A-List Hollywood 2013 Winners", 14 November 2013, off whitelist, for the Bronze in Copywriting for Samsung, "The Next Big Thing is Already Here", entered by 72andSunny, Los Angeles. Added during the footnote retrofit because no listed source covers the award or the agency's city. https://lbbonline.com/news/a-list-hollywood-2013-winners
3. iSpot.tv, "Samsung Super Bowl 2013 TV Spot, ‘Talking Babies’ Ft. Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd", first aired 3 February 2013, off whitelist, for the Super Bowl XLVII film for the Galaxy S III in which Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd pitch ideas to Bob Odenkirk for the brand's Big Game ad, with LeBron James appearing, and for its end line "The Next Big Thing Is Here". The page does not describe the film as being about an advertisement that avoids naming a competitor. https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7dGh/samsung-super-bowl-2013-talking-babies-ft-seth-rogen-paul-rudd Also Samsung Global Newsroom, "How to Get Jay-Z's New Album for FREE Before Everyone Else!!", 21 June 2013, for the deal giving one million free copies of Jay-Z's album Magna Carta Holy Grail to Galaxy users through an app, with the album delivered on 4 July, "72 hours before the album is even available to public". The page does not mention The Next Big Thing. Added during the footnote retrofit because no listed source covers the Jay-Z deal. https://news.samsung.com/global/how-to-get-jay-zs-new-album-for-free-before-everyone-else Also Adweek, Andrew McMains, "Samsung's 6 Greatest Marketing Moments on Todd Pendleton's Watch", 9 March 2015, off whitelist, full text behind a subscription, for Pendleton as Samsung's "chief marketing officer for mobile products", for "‘The Next Big Thing Is Here’ campaign in 2011, which slyly punched up at Apple", and for the "ads featuring Jay-Z and LeBron James in 2013". https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/samsungs-6-greatest-moments-during-todd-pendletons-watch-163353/
4. Campaign, "Samsung ‘the next big thing is already here’ by 72andSunny", 24 September 2012, for the September 2012 film setting the Galaxy S III against the iPhone 5 and for its credits: Jason Norcross as executive creative director, Barton Corley as creative director and writer, John Boiler as CEO and partner, Jake Kahana as designer, and on the Samsung side James Townsend as group brand director and Go Wakimoto as brand director. The UK address shows the article only behind a sign in; the same article, under the same article number, was read on Campaign US. https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/samsung-the-next-big-thing-already-here-72andsunny/1151493 https://www.campaignlive.com/article/samsung-the-next-big-thing-already-here-72andsunny/1151493
5. Fortune, Philip Elmer-DeWitt, "Chart of the day: Samsung's U.S. ad buy blew past Apple's", 13 March 2013, off whitelist, drawing on Horace Dediu's analysis at Asymco, for Samsung having spent "$401 million promoting its smartphones in the U.S. last year", that is in 2012, more than Apple. https://fortune.com/2013/03/13/chart-of-the-day-samsungs-u-s-ad-buy-blew-past-apples Also Samsung Global Newsroom, "Samsung GALAXY S II reaches 20 Million in global sales", 23 February 2012, for the Galaxy S II having "achieved 20 million global channel sales in 10 months since its debut in April 2011". https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-reaches-20-million-in-global-sales
6. Samsung Global Newsroom, three releases on Interbrand's Best Global Brands. "Samsung ranked No. 9 in the Best Global Brands 2012 by Interbrand", 2 October 2012, for the brand value of 32.9 billion dollars, a rise of 40 per cent against a top 100 average of 10 per cent, ninth place and the first entry into the top ten, https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-ranked-no-9-in-the-best-global-brands-2012-by-interbrand. "Samsung ranks 8th in Interbrand's ‘Best Global Brands 2013’", 30 September 2013, for eighth place at 39.6 billion dollars, https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-8th-best-global-brands. "Samsung Rises to No. 7 in Interbrand's ‘Best Global Brands 2014’ Report", 9 October 2014, for seventh place at 45.5 billion dollars. https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-rises-to-no-7-in-interbrands-best-global-brands-2014-report
7. MacRumors, Kelly Hodgkins, "Second Apple-Samsung Patent Trial Begins with Focus on Apple's ‘Holy War’, Advertising Envy, and Phil Schiller", 2 April 2014, off whitelist, for the second Apple and Samsung patent trial getting under way in earnest with opening arguments on Tuesday, which was 1 April 2014, for Samsung's counsel John Quinn saying "This new, edgy marketing strategy ... it drove Apple crazy" and pointing to internal Apple documents on Apple's concern about Samsung's Galaxy marketing, and for the Steve Jobs email of October 2010 calling the competition with Google and Android a "Holy War". https://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/02/apple-samsung-trial-holy-war-schiller/ Also Effie Worldwide, case library, "The Next Big Thing is Already Here", case NA_2013_6977, consulted on 1 October 2026, for the campaign's entry in the Effie North America 2013 case database; the case detail requires a subscription. https://www.effie.org/case_database/case/NA_2013_6977
8. Campaign, "A hopeful ostrich takes flight in inspirational Samsung Galaxy S8 spot", 30 March 2017, for the Galaxy S8 film from Leo Burnett Chicago that "also rolls out a new tagline, ‘Do What You Can’t.’" The article does not say that the tagline replaced The Next Big Thing. Added during the footnote retrofit because no listed source covers the 2017 platform; the same article is note 3 of the Brandvelle verse on the Ostrich film. https://www.campaignlive.com/article/hopeful-ostrich-takes-flight-inspirational-samsung-galaxy-s8-spot/1429188
