Samsung to spend ENTIRE budget of London 2012 OLYMPICS... on ADS

Samsung is preparing to embark upon a mammoth advertising campaign which will see it spend a whopping $14bn (£8.57bn) this year.

To put that into perspective, that is roughly the amount it cost the UK to stage the entire London Olympics in 2012 – including stadiums, venues, infrastructure and the cash it handed to G4S.

The chaebol might well be feeling nervous after sales of Samsung's flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone reportedly fell behind expectations. Amid rumours that it is holding "crisis meetings", Samsung has decided to focus on boosting its brand around the world using a massive advertising campaign.

According to data published by Reuters, Samsung spends about 5 per cent of its annual revenue on advertising, a sum that dwarfs Apple's 0.6 per cent.

"When your brand doesn't have a clear identity, as is the case with Samsung, to keep spending is probably the best strategy," Moon Ji-hun, head of brand consultant Interbrand's Korean operation told the news agency. "But maintaining marketing spend at that level in the longer term wouldn't bring much more benefit. No one can beat Samsung in terms of (ad) presence, and I doubt whether keeping investing at this level is effective."

In a statement, Samsung said it would "continue to leverage our brand power to maintain growth momentum, while focusing on optimizing the efficiency of our marketing activities".

Samsung is worth $227bn and has a history of spending big on advertising. However, it was fined almost $350k after hiring an army of angry commentards who criticised its rivals.

The South Korean firm was also slammed after contestants on reality talent show The X Factor were shown repeatedly using its products during an ad campaign it ran on ITV. ®