Samsung Bumps Up U.S. Advertising Efforts

In its continuing bid to overtake Apple as the number 1 maker of high-end smartphones, Samsung has increased its advertising efforts in the United States significantly in the past year. In a year that saw overall ad spending of the nation's 100 leading advertisers increase by a meager 2.8 percent, Samsung bumped up its U.S. ad budget by a remarkable 58 percent.

The Korean consumer electronics giant spent $881 million in the U.S. last year, roughly equivalent to one fifth of the company's global ad budget. With estimated spending of $4.3 billion in 2012, Samsung spent more than four times as much as its biggest rival Apple, which only spent $1 billion in the past year.

Amazon, ranked second in terms of relative ad spending growth, saw the biggest dollar increase in the past year. The e-commerce behemoth spent an estimated $1.1 billion on advertising in the U.S., an increase of more than $350 million from 2011.