TODAY@APPLE | Today at Apple | 2018
The Day Apple Gave Up the Word "Store" / APPLE "Today at Apple"
At Cannes 2018, what Apple won wasn't for advertising. It won the Grand Prix for store experience — an award earned by giving up on being a "place to sell."
The problem
Apple has run its own stores since 2001, but by then many customers already owned their fifth or tenth device. The role of "a store you go to try things out" was starting to fade. The team led by Ahrendts took seriously, once again, what Jobs said at the opening of the first store: that it's not about selling, but about enriching people's lives.
The insight
According to Ahrendts, what the digital generation craved most was connection with other people. So Apple started calling its stores a "Town Square" instead.
The idea
Apple began holding free weekly workshops called "Today at Apple" — covering coding, photography, and music — at all 501 stores around the world. Staff were given no sales quotas whatsoever, and the stores were fitted with huge video walls showing footage customized for each city. What's remarkable is that Apple built all of it themselves.
What happened
At Cannes 2018, the campaign won the Grand Prix and a Titanium Lion in the Brand Experience & Activation category. That same year, Apple also took the Grand Prix for HomePod's "Welcome Home" — it was practically Apple's year alone.
Afterthought
Stop calling it a "store," call it a "square." Drop the sales quotas and aim only at enriching people's lives. The fact that doing exactly that won a Grand Prix still gives me chills. Not making an ad, but designing an experience — this might be the most beautiful answer to that idea.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2018
