Case Study Review: Apple World Gallery Campaign

Figure 1: Shot on iPhone 6 Campaign image (Gurman, 2015).

This essay will be reviewing the award-winning Apple ‘World Gallery’ campaign.

The campaign’s Objectives

The motive of the campaign was to demonstrate the camera capabilities of the Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in a practical, visual and simplistic way to the world.

The campaign changed the way consumers compared the capabilities of their smartphones cameras. The ability of cameras are normally judged by how many megapixels it has, the aperture and framerate but Apple’s campaign debunked that ideology by showing the output of how great the ability of the iPhone 6 camera is (WARC, 2015b).

The campaign began running 6 months after the launch of the iPhone 6, during that period competitors began releasing devices of their own and campaigns boasting about its technological capabilities. However, the campaign ensured that the device was still top of mind after its launch so It could compete with its competitors and stay relevant (WARC, 2016b).

Consumers are now programmed to compare devices based on their specifications. New phones are released every year with better specs than the last, branding previous model obsolete. The room for improvement on phones in this era are becoming slimmer each year as majority of devices have very few differences in their specs. Apples campaign instead focused on the user experience, ease of use and proving how great the device, specifically the camera works in the real world (WARC, 2016b).

The Strategy

Apple first began to understand how their consumers used their device. Their findings concluded that the camera was the most spoken about feature on social platforms and the functionality of the camera was one of three considerations made when making a purchase. The iPhone is also well renowned for delivering very sharp, colour accurate and remarkable images (WARC, 2016b).

This justifies their point; When asking the public what their favourite feature about the iPhone was, they simply responded with posting their favourite photos and videos on social media. This encouraged iPhone users to take more photos and in turn caused non-iPhone users to question their phone’s camera ability (WARC, 2015b).

This is how the idea of the World Gallery campaign came to existence. Tens of thousands of photos and videos sent were filtered to the artwork of just 162 photographers which were used to create the world gallery. The location and images used for the out of home ads were carefully selected to enhance their viewing experience, featuring in 75 cities and 25 countries. Despite the iPhone being the product in focus, the creative imagery taken using its camera was what was being advertised. Television, print, cinema and the Apple website were also used to showcase the beauty of the photography and videography. (WARC, 2016b).

The Execution

The success of the advert was due to its simplicity. Apple understood how their consumers used their camera, they weren’t interested in its specifications, they just wanted a camera which effortlessly took amazing photos and that’s what they based their campaign around.

Figure 2: A screenshot showing #iPhoneonly posts (WARC, 2015a)

All the traffic created on social media was caused by users posting their favourite photos and videos generating an online buzz. iPhone photography already has a large community located on Twitter and Instagram, over 91 million posts were tagged #iPhoneonly existed before the World Gallery Campaign started (WARC, 2015b).

The Ad encouraged proud iPhone 6 users ranging from casual Instagrammers to professional photographers to actively engaging with the buzz of the campaign. The number of photos shared daily increased by 6 percent over the duration of the promotion, resulting in 4.6 million more users than last year. A secondary audience consisting of non-iPhone users were being nudged towards purchasing the device and consider the ability of the device they currently own (WARC, 2016a).

Another reason for the success of the Ad was how persuasive the campaign was, it caused non-iPhone users to judge the ability of their phone based on one function, the camera. The camera is one of the top considerations when buying a phone making it a crucial decision. Apple didn’t include any statistics or functionalities about the device or camera, only the photographic output (WARC, 2016a).

The Evaluation Method

The campaign was very successful in achieving their objectives. It managed to keep the iPhone 6 relevant and top of mind six months after its release date. During that period Samsung had just realised their own flagship phone, Galaxy S6. Despite Samsung just announcing their flagship product the interest around the iPhone still remained 2-3 times higher (WARC, 2016a).

Figure 3: A graph showing the Google Trend search for iPhone 6 and Samsung GS6 (WARC, 2016c).

The ‘World Gallery’ campaign overshadowed the campaign of the initial release of the iPhone 6, ‘Bigger than Bigger’. It managed to generate 69.5K more mentions without any celebrity endorsements and improvements to the device (WARC, 2016a).

The sales figures for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus drastically increased due to the successful campaign, an increase of 97% was seen in the second quarter of 2015. That figure is compared to the sales for Apple’s previous flagship phone the iPhone 5, in Q2’ 2014. All previous models of the iPhone benefited from the increase in sales of the 6, sales increased by 53% in Q2’ 2015 which also grew their market share by 41%.

Apple doesn’t discount any of their flagship products and the average sale price of the device increased by $50, meaning with the 20 million increase of iPhone 6 units sold, compared to the iPhone 5 in Q2’ 2014 their income drastically increased (WARC, 2016b).

The campaign generated 255+ million online impressions from 73 different countries and the hashtag #ShotoniPhone received a 9797% increase in engagement on Instagram. Mobile photo editing applications such as VSCO and Snapseed became very popular and rose several places on the App Store. This shows how engaged iPhone users were with the campaign and sharing their photos (WARC, 2015b).

References:

Gurman, M., 2015. Shot on iPhone 6 [photograph]. California: 9 To 5 Mac. Available from: https://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/screenshot-2015-03-01-10-54-09.png [Accessed 15 October 2017].

WARC., 2015a. 91M #iPhoneonly post on Instagram [screenshot]. Washington: Jay Chiat Strategic Excellence Award, Gold, 2015. Available: https://cdn-warc-com.libezproxy.bournemouth.ac.uk/fulltext/JAYCHIAT/images/105596f05.jpg [Accessed 15 October 2017].

WARC., 2015b. Apple iPhone 6: World Gallery [online]. Washington: Jay Chiat Strategic Excellence Award, Gold, 2015. Available: https://www-warc-com.libezproxy.bournemouth.ac.uk/SubscriberContent/Article/apple_iphone_6_world_gallery/105596 [Accessed 15 October 2017].

WARC., 2016a. Apple: iPhone 6 ‘World Gallery’ [online]. Washington: Effie Worldwide, Gold, North America Effies, 2016. Available: https://www-warc-com.libezproxy.bournemouth.ac.uk/SubscriberContent/Article/apple_iphone_6_world_gallery/109553 [Accessed 15 October 2017].

WARC., 2016b. Apple iPhone 6: World Gallery [online]. Washington: Cannes Creative Lions, Creative Effectiveness Lions, 2016. Available: https://www-warc-com.libezproxy.bournemouth.ac.uk/SubscriberContent/Article/apple_iphone_6_world_gallery/107879 [Accessed 15 October 2017].

WARC., 2016c. Google Search Trends [graph]. Washington: Cannes Creative Lions, Creative Effectiveness Lions, 2016. Available: https://cdn-warc-com.libezproxy.bournemouth.ac.uk/fulltext/CANNES/images/107879f02.gif [Accessed 15 October 2017].