HTC looking for marketing boost by hiring former Samsung mastermind

From 2012 onward, HTC has seemingly done everything right. They stepped everything up, from the quality of their smartphones to the scaled back Sense user interface that was once seen as bloated and in the way. The HTC One from 2013 built on that formula even further, and this year’s HTC One M8 almost perfected it.

But one thing HTC hasn’t been able to do as well is market the thing, which can make or break your smartphone no matter how good it is. The Taiwanese company is looking to change that after a failed $1 billion experiment with Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr, as they’ve gone and scooped up the man largely responsible for the Galaxy brand that has swept the globe.

According to Bloomberg, Paul Golden — Samsung’s chief marketing officer for the United States — has been snapped up by HTC on a currently temporary basis to directly advise chairperson Cher Wang. Paul Golden was at his Samsung post for the four year stretch between 2008 and 2012.

If you haven’t already figured it out, he was part of Samsung’s whole “Next Big Thing” push that began with Samsung directly mocking Apple in a series of ads to hype up the Samsung Galaxy S2. It was that campaign that started Samsung’s ascension to super stardom in the smartphone world, becoming the top OEM around the globe not named Apple.

So can he do the same for HTC? That depends. It’s one thing to have good ideas. It’s another thing to have the marketing dollars to back it up. Samsung has some serious cash flow from the various arms of their big electronics business. They have deep pockets and big bank accounts that can move enough capital to fund a war.

HTC, on the other hand, has been in the negative for quite some time, and unless the HTC One M8 can turn things around it’s going to be tough for them to be restored to former glory. At least it shows HTC knows what it needs to do to achieve that, though, and they’re making tangible efforts to get that done.