Samsung’s Olga Suvorova on how marketers can quickly tap in to cultural trends

Samsung’s Olga Suvorova knows what it’s like to be a fast-thinking and agile marketer.

Last May, Samsung dropped an ad on its social media with the hashtag “UnCrush” showing a young woman playing a broken guitar while reading music on her Galaxy Tab S9, Samsung’s tablet. The spot was a quick response to a certain competitor’s controversial ad for its own tablet, which depicted objects like a TV, paints and musical instruments being crushed.

Samsung’s response was a pithy pushback: “Creativity cannot be crushed.”

Suvorova — vice president of mobile-experience marketing at Samsung Electronics America — chatted with The Current Podcast about why Samsung wanted to respond.

“It comes down to a combination of being very clear about what you stand for as a brand and what your reason for being is, and being quick and nimble and constantly evolving to be at the center of that conversation,” she says.

“When that competitive ad came out, it was pretty much against everything we stand for, which is open innovation and fueling creativity and self-expression on people’s terms,” she adds. “That’s why it wasn’t just a rebuttal, but a very thoughtful — even though very quick — articulation and expression of what we hold near and dear to our heart, and championing that incredible community of creative people.”

Suvorova also talks about tapping in to broader cultural trends to market smartphones, engaging with Gen Z audiences and balancing brand awareness with performance as part of an omnichannel strategy.