Shortly after this card was posted online about a day ago, Twitter and Facebook went crazy sharing it. And for good reason. Could there be anything more entertaining than imagining that Sam Sung “Samsung” is actually working for Apple? Or perhaps considered the other way, the possibility that Apple would hire Sam Sung as a specialist for their products.
When I first saw this card, it was framed as likely being a hoax, albeit a clever one to perhaps fuel an online viral marketing campaign.
But if you know anything about printing, you will understand that the reflection on the Apple logo, indicates a foil application – a rather expensive one off endeavor for someone to make this card up. That and the fact that, being from Vancouver and an Apple customer at this store, I knew the address, phone and website to be accurate.
I visited the Apple store this afternoon, and was able to verify that yes indeed, Sam Sung works there. In fact he has since 2010. Apple staff were however rather guarded around my inquiry, acknowledging that the card had gone viral very quickly. And it appears that a previous LinkedIn profile for Sam Sung in Vancouver has now been removed. Curious…
That fact that Sam Sung, as shown in his LinkedIn profile prior to its removal, is a Marketing graduate intrigues me.
Could this be the cleverest personal branding viral campaign ever? Might Sam Sung be able to leverage it for his own personal gain? You betcha!
What do you think?
I would change me name to Steve Jobs if I wanted to capitalise on my affiliation with Apple.
Still, anything’s possible.
Good point. Either it’s incredible irony at work, or it truly is something bigger going on. Time will tell. The fact that he is a marketing graduate, and coincidently (or not) his business card happened to fall into the hands of a person with a large Twitter following initially can’t be overlooked. Either way, I would suggest it’s time for this young man to capitalize on his fame, and do something with his new found popularity and personal brand identity.
A little update on our friend Sam Sung, referenced in the article. I connected with him on Twitter recently, he tweets @ayesamsun, and he’s no longer at Apple, having been recently hired as a recruiter for Halloway Schultz. As I joked with him on Twitter, he’ll always be able to introduce himself as “Hello, I’m Sam Sung. I was a product specialist for Apple.” What a great way to make his personal brand memorable.