Apple Iphone sales are flagging. Having sold 26 million in the last quarter, it's down from 35 million in the previous one. Although compensated by growth in the Ipad (from 11m up to 17m - a killer growth) it's not good. How do you get it going again? Advertising.
Apple's new campaign for the Iphone 4S has roped in celebrities to bring them style and character. Focusing in on "Siri" which is the 'personal assistant' on the phone, the first in the series featured John Malkovich. It's their one 'point of difference' that gives iphone a competitive edge.
Using movie stars, gives the brand street cred. It ups the game but the celebs they've chosen helps to position Iphone away from low cost into quality coolness.
The newest, just released, features Martin Scorsese.
The angle of the commercials is that you can change a busy day on the fly but importantly, it's showing you an easy way to use different applications.
Voice is the easiest way to input data and is the holy grail to replace keyboards. Typing in data, when you think of it, is the oldest way to do it and voice will soon replace typing. PC's will become voice-driven exactly as touchscreen has changed them. So you won't write your emails, you'll speak them in.
Samuel Jackson gets in on the act too.
I don't know what the cost of these is, but it was a fortune. And I don't think they've made good use of these stars creatively - after all, think what you could do with Marty Scorsese. But in essence, having celebrities like these will do wonders for endorsing the brand when compared with Samsung the market leader.
They are quintessentially American stars, but international too so the campaign can go global. Big names for a big brand. And already they've created parodies on youtube.
Still, an interesting approach.
Have to say the greatest commercial probably of all time was not as most would say, Apple '1984', but this one, "the crazy ones" from 1997, called "Think Different". Done by Chiat Day, it came out as Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy, but ultimately saved by a 150 million usd investment, by microsoft of all people. Jobs had just returned to the company.
The voice over eventually ended up as Richard Dreyfuss but on this original, which never aired because it was a "demo" and the end frame here has been edited as a tribute to Jobs. See do you recognise who the voice is?
Indeed. Steve Jobs himself.
Apple have been at the forefront of Advertising.
This campaign, well, just isn't that.
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