Samsung today launched Samsung Nation, a website designed to attract owners of Samsung devices by offering an online community environmnet packed with games, prizes and social features.

Samsung Nation members can earn points, unlock badges, and be featured on a leaderboard as they engage in various activities such as watching videos, commenting on articles, reviewing, "Liking" or tweeting products, and participating in user-generated Q&As on Samsung's U.S. website. The program will reward many forms of participation regardless of the type of sentiment expressed toward Samsung products or the brand. For instance, a consumer product review will garner the same reward regardless of it being a 5-star review or a less stellar review.

"There are currently millions of Samsung brand enthusiasts who engage with us through our website," said Kris Narayanan, Vice President of Digital Marketing for Samsung Electronics America. "We created Samsung Nation as another way to demonstrate to these enthusiasts that we appreciate their loyalty and interest. This platform will help us better recognize and empower this online community of passionate advocates while they discover everything Samsung.com has to offer."

Certain paths to badges and rewards will be clear while others may catch members by surprise. For instance, unlocking a featured badge automatically enters members for a chance to win Samsung products. Other badges may be discovered by accident, such as a badge for late night browsing. Samsung Nation is powered by Badgeville, a behavior platform that uses gamification techniques to increase user engagement.

As part of the launch, three Samsung Nation members will each win a Wi-Fi 32GB Galaxy Tab 10.1. To enter the sweepstakes, visitors must unlock the limited-edition Early Adopter badge by signing up for Samsung Nation before 12/31/11. To access Samsung Nation, and for official rules, visit www.samsung.com/us/samsungnation.