Related Articles
Samsung is reportedly set to sign one of the biggest sponsorship deals in tech history by splurging $20m on rapper Jay-Z.
Mr Knowles-Carter’s endorsement is due to be finalised in the next few weeks, according to anonymous sources quoted by Big Apple scandal rag the New York Post.
The tipster reckons the man who calls himself J-Hova will tie in some kind of music-streaming system with his personal appearance in Samsung ads.
Music-tech tie-ins are nothing new, although there’s never been anything on this scale before. Alicia Keyes recently took up residence as creative director at BlackBerry, while Lady Gaga endorses Polaroid and Beats headphones, which was set up by Dr. Dre of course.
Beats were so successful partly because Dre made all his proteges wear the colourful cans in music videos — could we see Jay-Z and Kanye West pimping Galaxy phones on YouTube?
It couldn’t possibly be any worse than Samsung’s last effort at a music video. Fingers crossed elephants will be involved.
$20m might sound like major dosh, but tech is small fry compared to sports gear, with curly-haired golf moppet Rory McIlroy bagging a whopping £150m from Nike earlier this year.
Samsung famously has the biggest marketing budget of any mobile-maker in the world, a key factor in it completely dominating the phone market.
Should Samsung be spending its dosh on high-profile celebrity deals like this? Or just better phones? What’s the weirdest celeb endorsement you’ve seen? Can anything beat Rachel and Chandler explaining Windows 95? Deal with the news in the comments, or on our glamorous Facebook page.
Image credit: NPR
