Members of the Atlanta-based band Yacht Rock Revue, performing as Galactic Lazer Stallion.
Photo: Will Byington
SEOUL—The lead singer, wearing cowboy boots, golden leggings and a denim vest, cavorts to a crushing electric-guitar riff. But instead of crowing about groupies or partying all night, he is singing about a smartphone.
“I’m gonna feel so good in your hand and your pocket,” he belts out, his voice rising. “I’m premium tech—and you know you wanna rock it.”
Here I go again
With the industry’s boom era over, Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest smartphone maker, has a throwback plan to generate excitement among the people selling its new devices: Galactic Lazer Stallion, a fictional 1980s hair-metal rock band. Think “This Is Spinal Tap,” with a corporate sponsor.
Smartphones used to sell themselves. But sales have been falling for years, and desperate times call for desperate measures.
Samsung, through an outside ad agency, hired a real, Atlanta-based rock band to create songs as a fake hair-metal band about its two latest flagship phones. The fictional quartet’s music isn’t directly aimed at consumers. It’s online training material for Verizon Communications Inc. ’s sales staff. Absent a broad network of its own standalone stores, Samsung relies on retailers and service providers like Verizon to sway customers on its behalf.
Before the pandemic, staff learned how to upsell the South Korean tech giant’s new devices during in-person presentations by Samsung officials. Now Verizon employees—and perhaps anyone else looking for musical odes to folding screens and superfast fifth-generation cellular networks—can visit Galactic’s website, listen to a six-track EP on Spotify or watch the band’s music videos on YouTube.
There’s “Power Ballad,” about smartphone battery life, and “Device of Destiny,” dedicated to the Galaxy Note 20. Samsung’s new foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Fold 2, gets a shout-out in “Unfold Me”:
“Performance, style, durability/It feels good to be first/Built right, 5G.”
Verizon didn’t respond to a request for comment on the campaign. Samsung declined to discuss the effort.
Lead singer Nick Niespodziani, aka Galactic’s “Jet Janson,” invoked legends like Poison and Eddie Van Halen as he wrote the lyrics. But he needed to exercise some creative license, he admits, being a loyal Apple Inc. iPhone owner. He hadn’t held a Samsung phone before the music-video shoot last month, says Mr. Niespodziani, 41 years old.
Like many smartphone users, he still doesn’t quite grasp what 5G is, either. “Is 5G faster than Wi-Fi?” he asks. (It can be, but the network coverage has a long way to go.)
Smartphones, well into their second decade, are now a maturing product with decreasing novelty, says Matt Egan, a brand consultant at New York-based Siegel+Gale, who works with tech firms. “Like insurance,” he says.
What juice remains in smartphone glamour was presented last week when Apple unveiled its first-ever 5G devices. Following years of falling sales, the industry saw a 17% drop in global shipments during the first half of the year compared with 2019, according to Strategy Analytics, a market researcher.
Samsung sells about one of every five smartphones world-wide. It has seen shipments slide 30% in this year’s second quarter compared with the same quarter last year, to 53.7 million smartphones, according to research firm Canalys. Analysts expect sales to be stronger in the third quarter.
Bandmates Mark Dannells, Nick Niespodziani and Peter Olson during filming for one of the Galactic Lazer Stallion videos.
Photo: Will Byington
Marcus Liwag, of New York-based Iris Worldwide, which created the campaign for Samsung, says country and other music genres were considered, but in the end hair metal was deemed the “most fun.” Mr. Niespodziani happened to be neighbors with an Iris employee.
He and his three bandmates perform in real life as Yacht Rock Revue, mostly singing cover songs from the ’80s. The band welcomed the Samsung gig, especially since their touring income has dried up during the pandemic. Bass player Peter Olson, 42, who is Galactic’s “Jason Oldstead,” hopes the band’s hair-metal performance catches the attention of other big companies. The group, he adds, is versatile enough to do reggae, country or punk rock.
“Maybe we’ll be the next Delta in-flight safety video trainer,” Mr. Olson says.
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Mr. Niespodziani’s lack of familiarity with Samsung’s phone lineup wasn’t the only hurdle in coming up with the songs. The company didn’t lend him the Galaxy Note 20 or the Galaxy Z Fold 2 until the band was on set filming the videos. Samsung and Iris had just provided a shortlist of topical prompts like “customizable hinge” or “S-Pen” or “battery life.”
Mr. Niespodziani says he finished writing the six songs in about 10 days. “I could play around the edges so long as I had the hook,” he says.
The music videos were filmed in August over three days at a sound stage and a performance venue in Atlanta. To cut down on production time, the producers used the same costumes throughout and a green screen.
With his stint as a Samsung cover man now over, Mr. Niespodziani says the company’s phones were much nicer than he had thought. He’s still sticking with his iPhone.
“I’m pretty entrenched in my Apple universe,” he says.
On set with Galactic Lazer Stallion.
Photo: Will Byington
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Appeared in the, print edition as ‘Fake Metal Band Aims to Turn Phone Sales Up to 11.’
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