APPLE | WELCOME TO @APPLE | 2018
The company that showed up on social media seven years late—and didn't advertise a thing / APPLE "WELCOME TO @APPLE"
Apple finally launched its Instagram account, and didn't post a single photo of its own products. The only photos it shared were ones taken by iPhone users around the world.
The problem
Seven years after Instagram launched, Apple finally opened its official account, @apple. While most brands lined up their product photos to avoid falling behind, Apple did the exact opposite.
The insight
Apple realized something: the platform itself was already overflowing with people using iPhone cameras. So instead of the company "showing off," why not build a place where users would want to show off themselves?
The idea
Users could join in simply by tagging their photos #ShotoniPhone, and everyone from professionals to amateurs with just a few hundred followers got featured side by side. Using a concept called "one lens, multiple perspectives," Apple arranged the photos in a circular grid, and also made collection videos grouping user posts by theme—one-point perspective, snowflakes, architecture, and more. Apple set itself a strict rule: no internal promotion, no driving traffic from its homepage, not even a press release. The whole thing had to work on the strength of the community alone.
What happened
The campaign won Gold in the Social & Influencer category and Silver in Mobile at the 2018 Cannes Lions. That same year, Apple picked up numerous other awards as well and was named Cannes' "Advertiser of the Year."
Afterthought
Advertising is usually thought of as making your own voice louder, but this did the opposite—it simply gave other people's voices the best spot in the room. What's amazing is that this alone made iPhone users everywhere think, "I want to take a photo too." Apple pulled off the contradiction of making not-advertising the best advertising, and made it look effortless.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2018
