APPLE: SHOT ON IPHONE

3 words. 0 products. 1 outcome. The best campaign ever?

January 23, 2022

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3 words.

0 products.

1 outcome.

One of the best campaigns EVER.

But why was it so great?

Company Overview

Market cap: $2.7 Trillion (Source)

2021 Revenue: $365.82 Billion (Source)

Apple is an American technology company that specializes in consumer electronics and computer software.

If you don’t know Apple… let’s be honest, you know Apple

  • It’s the largest information technology company by revenue

  • The world's most valuable company

  • 4th largest PC vendor by unit sales

  • 4th largest smartphone manufacturer

In fact, you’re probably reading this on an Apple product right now.

As it’s estimated that 64% of people own an Apple product.

Apple is known for it’s amazing products

But what if I told you Apple’s marketing often avoids selling their products…

Instead, they sell outcomes.

Breaking Down The Strategy

Simplicity.

If I could use one word to sum up Apple it would be “Simplicity”.

It’s making the complicated simple which makes Apple so great.

It’s through being able to make such complicated technology simple that makes Apple one of the most creative companies in the world.

As the saying goes:

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

Apple’s marketing?

Just as simple as the company.

It embodies who Apple is perfectly.

Very few words and very little focus on the product

Sleek, simple and yet so sophisticated.

Take their “Shot on iPhone” campaign for example:

Notice there are 0 Apple products in the ad and very minimal words.

It’s simply one photo.

One photo not taken by a professional; but by a normal Apple user.

Yet, it’s one of the best campaigns to ever launch.

The campaign isn’t just photos though.

They recently began a video version of the campaign.

The below “Holiday” video - shot solely on an iPhone - was released back in November 2021 and has nearly amassed 20 million views!

They even worked with Selena Gomez to have her whole music video #ShotoniPhone.

Yes, 100% of this video was shot on an iPhone!

This campaign is exactly what Apple is all about.

The iPhone is one of the most complex and advanced consumer products on the market, yet it is so simple and accessible to all ages.

The iPad and the Mac do the same with tablets and computers.

How do they advertise these complex products?

Simply, just like their products.

Selling an outcome 

Apple doesn’t advertise what the product is, they simply show what the product does.

They are selling an outcome, not a product.

They don’t tell you the intricate details of the high tech camera they have, because 99% of consumers wouldn’t understand the jargon. Instead, they show what their high tech camera does.

Everyone can see that the pictures in the Shot on iPhone campaign are amazing. Therefore, they know the camera is amazing.

They told the world that the iPhone has an amazing camera in a way that everyone would understand.

The basis of the campaign - selling an outcome - is genius, but there is also so much more to it:

  • Social side: The Shot on iPhone campaign was cleverly made into a competition by Apple. People are able to submit their attempts to be featured by simply posting their best photos (taken on an iPhone) on social media with the hashtag #ShotoniPhone. At the time of writing this, there are 23.8M photos posted on Instagram using the hashtag with an estimated 6.5 Billion impressions. The campaign didn’t just have a huge impact with its out-of-house marketing but it killed it on socials too.

  • User-generated community: When I think of user-generated content I think of Red Bull and GoPro, but the truth is Apple is right up there with them. By launching this campaign and focusing on user-generated content, Apple created a community of users all working together. It wasn’t just about taking a picture. Users were now part of the brand; when they saw their pictures or videos posted, they felt like they were helping contribute to the company’s success. The company and the users essentially became one. They don’t have a brand retention rate of a staggering 90% for no reason! (Source)

The thought behind the campaign was highlighted beautifully by Tor Myrhen - Apple’s VP of marketing communications:

[The campaign was} a ridiculously simple idea, based on behavior we were seeing with people posting their photos and hashtagging them in different ways.

It breaks all the rules of today’s fast and temporary and fractured digital culture. It’s static, it doesn’t move, it’s singular—all the things that most of marketing nowadays is not.

The Shot on iPhone campaign wasn’t just a great campaign for Apple.

It is Apple.

It’s everything the Apple brand is, in one campaign, in one photo.

The Lessons

There are 2 huge lessons you should take away from this:

  1. Your marketing should embody WHO your brand is.

  2. Simplicity is creativity

When you have an awesome campaign idea for your company, one of the first things you should ask yourself is “Does this fit with the brand”. Yes, it might be great for a quick increase in sales. But long term it’s so much more important that you’ve represented the brand well over the years. Choose WHO your brand is and then ensure everything you do fits with that image.

A lot of companies tend to overcomplicate things in an attempt to prove their product is spectacular.

Take Intel for example:

Every laptop that uses Intel products always has an Intel sticker on it with whichever product is used. The truth is no one really knows what the core i3 is or does. A better idea would be to simplify exactly what the processer is doing in a way the user would understand. Running a level system for the processors would make much more sense: “Intel inside: Level 5 processor” - this way it would be simple for people to understand how good the processor in the laptop is so they could differentiate which laptop has the best processor.

How To Implement It

I’m going to make this section exactly like Apple’s marketing - simple.

So, here are some very quick tips:

  • Take “dictionary” words out of your marketing copy

  • Sell the outcome, not the product

  • Involve consumers when you can

  • Always have a social media aspect to campaigns

  • Make your marketing embody who your company is

Apple’s products are amazing.

But their marketing…

It’s truly spectacular.

This has been a breakdown of Apple’s marketing strategy. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy into your business!

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I’ll see you next Sunday!