Pitch Samsung your R&D Ideas

It looks like Samsung is opening up its R&D process to outsiders. (Hat tip: Chris F. Masse of the Midas Oracle) The new Pitch Your Ideas site from Samsung encourages Internet visitors to type in ideas for new products and services to a group of three actor-avatars: a Kelly Ripa look-alike; a dude in a nondescript gray business suit; and an eccentric, Dieter Zetsche-y fellow in a white lab coat.

If you've never seen a site like this, it's kinda cool, since these actor-avatars actually seem to be responding to what you type in. However, it's not nearly as cool as Burger King's Subservient Chicken site and the actor-avatars are actually a bit more obnoxious and well, ungrateful, than I would have expected. Even some of my ideas involving nanotechnology and biotech were met with obnoxious stares, giggles or outright derision. Plus, if you linger at the keyboard too long, the Kelly Ripa doppleganger starts insulting you ("If you're this slow with your fingers, I would hate to see your mind at work"), the bald dude in the business suit launches into a satirical song beloved by college beer drinkers everywhere, and the fellow in the white lab coat starts falling asleep at the desk. On the plus side, the characters do various accents if you encourage them, and I think the guy in the middle does a passable Robert De Niro-as-Travis Bickle: "You talkin' to me?").

So, what to make of all this? For one, this being Samsung and all that, I would have expected a greater emphasis on the company's cool products -- like the Samsung Blackjack -- or a greater tie-in with the company's cool advertisements (two of my faves are the Russian ad for Samsung laptops featuring Svetlana Khorkina and the  Korean ad for Samsung printers featuring Jeon Ji-Hyun). Youthful, upbeat, slick and cool. In contrast, this site seemed too canned, too generic. Secondly, I think that obnoxious humor is fine for selling Burger King chicken sandwiches, but not so much for coming up with cool new R&D ideas. Rule #1 of innovation: never insult people when they come up with new ideas, no matter how impractical or ridiculous they are. (Yeah, I have you in mind, you Kelly Ripa evil twin!)

Anyway, let me know what you think.

Comments

[BNRaviteja]

FROM:

Ravi Teja B.N.
Sathyabama University
Chennai
India
Email id: bnraviteja@yahoo.co.in
Contact no: (+91)9884089625

To

Samsung research and development,

Subject: Innovations in Mobile technology.

Respected sir,
I am a third year under graduate student under the branch of electronics and telecommunications. I have developed a project called as GADGET-2k7,which we have presented in IIT Bombay and Kanpur where we have won the third prize in ENDEAVOUR, one of the largest functional model presentation held in Asia in IIT Kanpur, February 2007. The project I have built upon is on how an ordinary hand set can be made as such to suit needs of a common man. The hardware which we have built ourselves is a low cost, economic &ergonomic model of a solar and voice charger for a hand set. Also we have developed hardware which we call as MIISED CALL MANAGER by which a set of missed calls can be given from a mobile of the house owner and any electrical appliance can be controlled in the house. This requires extra hardware to be attached to land line and many user oriented software with many applications such as sms based e bill paying system, mms to sms ,message guard for Sms as well as data received from blue tooth.

By this mail I just want you people to give me a chance to exhibit my model which I suppose will be to your interest. Hoping for a positive reply from your side.

Thanking you,

With regards
Ravi Teja .B.N