If it seems counterintuitive that a pioneering technology company would latch onto one of the oldest and often most analog forms of advertising—out of home—Apple’s Tor Myhren can explain.
Billboards and other “outdoor expressions” hold a special place in a transient world, said Myhren, Apple’s vp of marketing communications, during his Wednesday keynote speech at Adweek’s Elevate: Out of Home event.
We absolutely love outdoor. It breaks all the rules of today’s fast and temporary and fractured digital culture.
Research has shown Gen Z consumers find outdoor ads “relaxing,” he said, noting that the brand began investing heavily in the medium to market its Mac computer in the 1990s with groundbreaking images—John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the side of a building and Rosa Parks on a city bus among them—under the “Think Different” tagline.
And far from losing its luster, the medium has become even more effective over time.
“We absolutely love outdoor,” Myhren said. “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.”
Myhren, who rarely speaks publicly on the high-profile work produced by Apple and its dedicated agency, TBWA\Media Arts Lab, gave an overview of the brand’s Cannes Lions Grand Prix-winning campaign, “Shot on iPhone,” which initially launched in 2014 and shows no sign of slowing.
Envisioned from the start for outdoor placement, “Shot on iPhone” was “a ridiculously simple idea,” Myhren said, “based on behavior we were seeing with people posting their photos and hashtagging them in different ways.”
By blowing up those images—in some cases, making them 80 feet tall—Apple showcased both the smartphone’s camera features and the consumers who were experimenting with them, serving as inspiration for other creators.
There was an aesthetic goal, as well, to upgrade the physical environment of the ad placements and the surrounding cityscaPES
source : adweek
