Samsung CTIA Presentation Experience

There’s a tablet arms race going on right now. The successful iPad product launch presentation got things going in early March. And since then there have been other launch presentations from the tablet computer manufacturers at the GSM Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and the CTIA 2011 show in Orlando, Florida. Now it’s the turn of Samsung. Note, of course, that the Samsung CTIA presentation of the all new Galaxy line of tablet computers follows their product introduction last year.

Unlike the Apple launch this Samsung CTIA presentation was very much a Samsung Galaxy team effort. In contrast, the Apple iPad 2 presentation was very much a Steve Jobs performance supported by a few other presenters. The Samsung presentation was an all-round team effort with no real star on display…not counting the actors who appeared as “real customers” in one of the presentation videos.

Samsung CTIA Presentation Proves Rehearsed

This was a rehearsed presentation. It was slick, but not totally convincing.

Some of the speakers were clearly apprehensive with their hands clasped in front of them, nervously tipping backwards and forwards.

The tone of a few of the Samsung presenters remained slightly wooden. It was obvious that they were reading their lines from a screen on the floor. That was a pity, because the story was well-worked. Perhaps if they had rehearsed the presentation that  bit more.

We expected management speak and technology speak. Fortunately there wasn’t too much of this. But there were some classic examples, such as:

…and to complement this premium video experience…

and,

…very unique.

and,

A mobile tablet experience.

Marvellous. What did marketers describe things as before they found the word, experience.

Team Samsung Makes The Difference

As a team presentation the Samsung show benefited from slick hand-overs between the various Samsung presenters. That was encouraging. Since, when it’s unrehearsed this is an area for trouble!

There were stumbles. Of course, these were probably the result of an over-reliance on reading an autocue script on the floor monitor. Of course, autocue practice is always essential and can help you avoid the wooden, stilted voice of a reader. There’s an example of this with the Alan Mulally presentation last year. But the production values held it all together: some excellent video, good titling, classy graphics and “user” interviews.

In summary, this proved to be a well-worked Samsung CTIA presentation marking an excellent product launch.