Samsung borrows Zuckerberg for Mobile World content

Trade shows can be an extremely effective place to run content marketing campaigns. Not only do you have a captive audience, but their proximity allows you to try out new ideas.

Samsung appears to have borne this in mind at this week’s Mobile World Congress. For its presentation, the company placed its Gear virtual reality headsets on chairs. The headsets showed a film about Samsung’s forthcoming 360-degree camera, the Gear 360.

The film itself was shot in Barcelona using a Samsung S7 camera and included an announcement that Samsung is working with Facebook on developing VR. But the real twist was when participants took off the headsets – because up on stage was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. It is worth pointing out at this point that Facebook is developing its own VR headset, the Oculus Rift.

Zuckerberg went on to talk about the future of VR and how he had dreamed of it when he was at school. More importantly for the present, he added that Facebook is aiming to be the best platform for 360 video.

He  said: “It wouldn’t be possible to deliver this experience at this scale and this price without Samsung’s experience in hardware and systems, and without Facebook’s software and Oculus technology.

“VR is the next platform,” he stated. “It’s still mostly used for games and entertainment but that’s quickly evolving. One day, you’ll put on a headset and that will change the way you live, work and communicate.”

There are signs that VR could become a key part of content marketing, with companies including Marriott and GE working on applications. However, it is at events such as this where it is likely to shine.

Samsung borrows Zuckerberg for Mobile World content is part of Content24, the online magazine for London content marketing agency FirstWord.