Mediaboss Marketing

It started with a Rawr and ended with a roo. But Samsung Canadas latest social media marketing effort has grown into something more than the tiny whimsical exchange that began on Facebook.

On Wednesday, Samsung customer Shane Bennett, who owns a Galaxy smartphone as well as a laptop and LCD TV made by the company, wrote a private message to Samsung Canada on Facebook. On a whim, he asked whether he could get a free upgrade of his phone to the latest model, the S III, not yet in stores.

To sweeten the request, he added, I have attached a picture of a dragon I just drew for you.

The crudely scribbled green monster, which sports a beaver-like tail and an amazing ability to breathe fire despite the fact that his mouth appears to be closed, appeared beneath the message. A helpful sound effect, Rawr was scrawled above the flames.

Samsung Canada has just one online community manager for its Facebook pages, Twitter feed and Google+ profile, so Drew Bomhof did not receive the message until Thursday. His response was to politely deny the request for a free phone, explaining that if they gave them to everyone who asked the company would go under. (Mr. Bromhof, an employee of agency Cheil Canada, noted in an interview that compoarable smarthpones retail in the $800 range.)

That being said, your drawing of the dragon is epic, he wrote in his reply, so were returning the favour. Please find attached a drawing of a kangaroo on a unicycle.

Mr. Bomhof clarified in an interview, redundantly, that he is not an artist.

Despite that, Mr. Bennett was so pleased with the reply that he took to Reddit, the self-proclaimed front page of the Internet and a widely respected forum where readers vote the best content to the top of the site. Mr. Bennett posted a picture of the message thread, with the dragon and kangaroo, on the site and watched as it was voted up to the front page on Thursday evening.

So that page just got liked, one commenter wrote on the Reddit feed.

As the post was viewed by more people, some were driven back to the companys Facebook wall.

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When social media marketing goes right