Samsung SSD campaign puts reliability on New York billboards

The short version

Samsung's SSD campaign, Choose the sure thing, runs on giant screens in Times Square, Piccadilly Circus and Central, Hong Kong.
The pitch is about trust, not speed: Samsung argues that losing your data costs more than any storage drive.
It lands as an AI-driven flash shortage pushes SSD prices sharply higher, making cheap unknown drives more tempting.
Samsung says the campaign will spread to its website, digital ads and social media, and no new drive or warranty change was announced.

Quick read · 1 min

Samsung has put its SSD campaign, built on the slogan "Choose the sure thing," on giant screens in Times Square, Piccadilly Circus and Central, Hong Kong. The ads skip speed claims. Instead, they argue that your photos and files are worth more than any drive, so you should buy one you trust.

The timing matters. An AI-driven shortage of flash memory has pushed SSD prices far higher this year, and Samsung expects supply to stay tight into 2028. That makes cheap unknown drives tempting, which is exactly the habit Samsung wants to break.

No new drive, price cut or warranty change came with the campaign.
It will spread to Samsung's website, digital ads and social media.
Whatever you buy, keep a second copy of important files.

The world’s biggest seller of memory chips is renting some of the most expensive screen space on the planet to tell you something simple: don’t gamble with your files. Samsung’s SSD campaign, built around the line “Choose the sure thing,” now runs on giant digital billboards in Times Square in New York, Piccadilly Circus in London and on the Entertainment Building in Central, Hong Kong.

Why should you care about an ad? Because of the timing. SSD prices have climbed steeply this year as AI data centers swallow flash memory, and that makes no-name budget drives look tempting. Samsung is betting that shoppers squeezed on price will still pay extra for a brand they believe won’t lose their photos, work files or game library. Whether that bet is right for you depends on what you store and how you back it up.

What the Samsung SSD campaign actually says

The Samsung SSD campaign has one core message: when you have everything to lose, pick the option you can count on. Samsung says it wants its solid-state drives (the fast, chip-based storage inside most modern laptops and PCs) to be seen as a premium brand for valuable data, not just a box of gigabytes.

Tommy (Hyoungsuk) Kwon, a vice president in Samsung’s memory brand team, framed it around the idea that losing data now means losing everything. He called the drive “the ultimate reliable choice” for buyers.

There are no speed claims, no benchmark charts and no new product in the push. Samsung also posted a short mash-up video of the billboards on its YouTube channel, and its own release notes that some images in that video were made with AI.

close-up of data storage hardware or a generic data center concept

Where you can see the billboards

So far the ads run in three cities: New York, London and Hong Kong. In each, Samsung picked a landmark spot with huge foot traffic.

New York: the screens around Times Square.
London: the famous curved display at Piccadilly Circus.
Hong Kong: the Entertainment Building in the Central district.

Samsung says the campaign will keep growing beyond these billboards, onto its own website, digital channels and social media. It has not named more cities or dates. Readers in Canada are most likely to meet it online rather than on a street corner, since no Canadian location has been announced.

Why Samsung is pushing trust while SSD prices soar

SSDs cost far more than they did a year ago. Industry tracker figures show the contract price of a 256GB TLC drive (the bulk price drive makers pay) reached about $134.20 in the third quarter of 2026, up from $33.30 a year earlier. That is a rise of 303 percent.

Those are wholesale numbers, so shop prices have not quadrupled across the board. But shoppers feel it. A typical 1TB Gen4 NVMe drive averaged around $144 in mid-October, and Samsung’s own 990 Evo Plus 1TB was listed at $237, against an earlier low of about $59.

The cause is AI. Cloud companies are buying huge numbers of high-capacity drives for AI systems, and chipmakers are giving those customers priority. TrendForce expects flash contract prices to rise again in the fourth quarter, by somewhere between fifteen and twenty percent. Samsung itself told investors on its third-quarter earnings call that memory supply will stay tight into 2028.

That is the backdrop for the billboards. When every drive costs more, the gap between a big brand and a cheap unknown one can feel easier to justify, or harder to swallow. Samsung clearly wants it to be the first.

What this means when you buy your next drive

For most people, the ad is a useful reminder rather than a buying guide. The real question is not which logo is on the box, but how much it would hurt to lose what is on it.

Pay for trust where it matters. For the drive that holds your only copy of family photos or business files, a well-known brand with a solid warranty is worth considering. For a spare game drive, a cheaper option may be fine.
Back up anyway. No drive, from any maker, is a substitute for a second copy. Keep important files on an external drive or a cloud service as well.
Check the deal, not the hype. Prices are moving fast. Compare the price per terabyte and the warranty length before you buy, and watch for holiday sales.
Be wary of very cheap listings. With prices this high, an unusually low price on a big drive from an unfamiliar seller deserves a closer look.

One part of the story Samsung does not put on a billboard is software. Samsung SSD owners can use its free Magician app for firmware updates, health and temperature checks and moving data to a new drive. Earlier this year Samsung patched a serious flaw in that app that could let an attacker gain administrator rights on a PC. If you use Magician, make sure you are on version 9.0 or newer.

Is a brand campaign a sign of anything bigger?

Probably not a new product. Samsung’s announcement is about brand image only. It did not change prices, extend warranties or launch a drive alongside the ads, so you should not expect bundles or special offers tied to the slogan unless Samsung announces them.

What it does show is confidence. Samsung’s chip business is booming on AI demand, and the company can afford to market storage on emotion while rivals fight on price. For buyers, that means the shortage, not the slogan, will decide what you pay over the coming months.

Quick answers

What is Samsung’s Choose the sure thing campaign?

It is a brand campaign for Samsung SSDs that sells reliability rather than speed, arguing that your data is worth more than the drive it lives on.

Where are the Samsung SSD billboards?

In Times Square in New York, Piccadilly Circus in London and on the Entertainment Building in Central, Hong Kong. Samsung says the campaign will also run online and on social media.

Are SSDs going to get cheaper soon?

Not soon. Analysts expect flash prices to keep rising into the fourth quarter, and Samsung says memory supply will stay tight into 2028.

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