The guy behind Samsung's 'Next Big Thing' campaign has left the company

Samsung Mobile's CMO Todd Pendleton has left the company, Business Insider has learned. AdAge and CNET have also confirmed the news.

Pendleton was responsible for the team that put together the successful "Next Big Thing" campaign that helped boost Samsung to the top smartphone vendor in the world.

The ad campaign was largely credited for Samsung's rise and the narrative in the press a few years ago that Samsung was out-innovating Apple in smartphones and tablets.

In fact, it was so successful that Samsung saw a rise in sales in other parts of its business like appliances.

However, as we reported last week, Samsung's Korean executives were skeptical of the campaign's success and sent a plane full of auditor's to the mobile division's headquarters in Dallas for an unannounced audit that lasted three weeks. Even though the audit found nothing wrong, the "Next Big Thing" campaign wasn't allowed to expand beyond the US, even though international marketing teams wanted it.

Samsung is getting ready to for its most important smartphone launch ever with the Galaxy S6, which goes on sale April 10. Last year, Samsung's profits tanked on weak smartphone sales, which the company blamed on increased competition.

The company has had trouble hanging onto the high-end of the smartphone market now that Apple has finally caught up with two big-screen iPhones. Plus, several Android manufacturers like the Chinese startup Xiaomi have been able to make phones that are just as good as Samsung's phones, but cost about half as much.

The Galaxy S6 and curved-screen Galaxy S6 Edge are made of all metal and glass, a departure from Samsung's plastic designs.

Business Insider has reached out to Samsung for confirmation and we'll update when we here back.