--- description: Samsung is notorious for its lavish spending on marketing and advertising. The company reportedly poured a whopping $14 billion into marketing in 2013 and recently... title: Here’s How Apple Is Closing the Gap With Samsung image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ad3c7b14e092357/6986883fd0b6f27c9730388c/apple-samsung.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Here's How Apple Is Closing the Gap With Samsung by [Victor Luckerson](/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 8, 2014 7:29 PM CUT  A man is silhouetted against a video screen with Apple and Samsung logos as he poses with a Samsung Galaxy S4 in this photo illustration taken in the central Bosnian town of Zenica, August 14, 2013\. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic (BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - Tags: BUSINESS TELECOMS) - RTX12L6K A man is silhouetted against a video screen with Apple and Samsung logos as he poses with a Samsung Galaxy S4 in this photo illustration taken in the central Bosnian town of Zenica, August 14, 2013\. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic (BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - Tags: BUSINESS TELECOMS) - RTX12L6KDado Ruvic / Reuters by [Victor Luckerson](/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 8, 2014 7:29 PM CUT Samsung is notorious for its lavish spending on marketing and advertising. The company reportedly poured a whopping [$14 billion](http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/27/us-samsung-marketing-idUSBRE9AQ18720131127 "undefined") into marketing in 2013 and recently launched a new [anti-Apple campaign](http://time.com/8841/samsung-mocks-apple-ipad-pencil-commercial/ "undefined") to promote its Galaxy tablets. But rival Apple is catching up to Samsung’s huge ad spend, at least in the U.S. Apple’s U.S. ad spending on mobile phones increased five percent to $351 million last year, according to data from Kantar Media reported by [The Wall Street Journal](http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/04/08/apple-closes-u-s-ad-spending-gap-with-samsung/ "undefined"). Samsung, meanwhile, decreased its ad spend by 10 percent to $363 million. The Korean tech giant still leads all smartphone makers in its ad budget, though. Apple’s increased focus on advertising could be a sign that Samsung’s marketing onslaught, which regularly [lampoons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNxDd3l0lEU "undefined") the iPhone maker, has been effective. An [email](http://time.com/52126/apple-emails-steve-jobs/ "undefined") disclosed last week as part of Apple’s lawsuit against Samsung reveals that Apple felt overmatched by Samsung’s ads in recent years. Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president for global marketing, wrote that Samsung was “an athlete who can’t miss because they are in the zone,” “while we struggle to nail a compelling brief on iPhone.” Samsung has been the leading mobile phone manufacturer in the world since 2012, but the company’s profitability has [declined](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-07/samsung-earnings-beat-estimates-on-cheaper-galaxy-phones.html "undefined") in its two most recent quarters. The tech giant is hoping to get a boost this week from the launch of its newest smartphone, the Galaxy S5\. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/53718/heres-how-apple-is-closing-the-gap-with-samsung/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/53718/heres-how-apple-is-closing-the-gap-with-samsung/"},"headline":"Here's How Apple Is Closing the Gap With Samsung","datePublished":"2014-04-08T19:29:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:11:44.755Z","description":"Samsung is notorious for its lavish spending on marketing and advertising. 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