The People’s CampaignA campaign for the people, by the people

Matthew Somodvarac

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The People’s CampaignMatthew Somodvarac

The ‘Shot on iPhone’ campaign is one of Apple’s most popular and well received campaigns since the famous ‘1984’ Macintosh campaign. It takes the creativity from Apple and puts the campaign in your hands (a very bold and successful move by Apple).

The campaign is very simple and consistent. It features photos and sometimes videos that are mainly showcased on large billboards but also in a variety of media that only have the authors name and ‘Shot on iPhone’ as its caption, surrounded by a white frame. This makes the campaign very recognisable as the photos follow a similar style and the layout of the advert is always the same.

What makes this campaign different from all other pyramid schemes is that everyone is aware that this came from an individual not affiliated with Apple. The little tag below the photo ‘by John D.’ keeps reminding us that there isn’t an entire company behind

this poster, it is just one person that saw a beautiful view and decided to take their phone out and capture it. Apple likes to celebrate people like that. One of Apple’s original ad-men stated that since the beginning Steve Jobs pushed the idea that ads should highlight the users over the technology.

The brilliant thing about this campaign is how interactive it is and the traffic that it creates. Instead of Apple themselves trying to convince us how great their camera is because it has such and such megapixels, which is something that most people won’t pay attention to, they let the camera speak for itself and involve the community so you don’t have to take their word for it. Because we live in a digital world where all modern day smartphones have high quality cameras built into them, we are all photographers, we love to take photos that capture moments that we want to treasure. So when we see these advertisements, naturally we are enticed to participate and this is how Apple gets the general public involved. So not only

References: Horaczek, S. (2016, December 7) Flickr’s 2016 Stats Show iPhone Camera Domination Increasing Retrieved from: https://www.popphoto.com/flickrs-2016-stats-show-iphone-camera-domination-increasingUnit sales of the Apple iPhone worldwide from 2007 to 2017 (in millions) Retrieved from:https://www.statista.com/statistics/276306/global-apple-iphone-sales-since-fiscal-year-2007/

12 Apple Statistics Marketers Should Know In 2018 Retrieved from: http://mediakix.com/2018/07/apple-statistics/#gs.lXRQhOwGlobal Apple iPhone sales from 3rd quarter 2007 to 3rd quarter 2018 (in million units)Retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/263401/global-apple-iphone-sales-since-3rd-quarter-2007/

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is the campaign very successful because it reaches a wide audience and it is effective at selling the product but also because the entire community wants to take part in it.

Don’t be deceived, as simple as the ads are, this is a very complex and well-thought out campaign. It consists of over 10,000 installations in 25 countries and 73 cities. It took a lot of work to pull off. The iPhone camera does shoot high resolution images but this is nothing compared to the image quality of your average DSLR so optimising the images to keep their quality even when stretched over the side of an entire building was a challenging task. Furthermore, all of the images were hand-picked for the location they were going to be showcased in to ensure that all the photos are appropriate and relevant. For example, over the course of this summer (in the Northern Hemisphere) Apple put up a new installment in the campaign across Europe titled ‘Sunshine Everywhere’ that features summertime oriented photos of people in swimming pools, waterslides or the ocean.

On Flickr, one of the world’s most popular image sharing websites, smartphones took over in 2016 as most used devices to capture photos, which was after the launch of the ‘Shot on iPhone’ campaign. 48% of all images on the website were taken on smartphones and Apple was the most popular device brand, accounting for 47% of images uploaded (see graph on next page).

With its award-winning campaign, Apple increased sales of the iPhone to achieve its highest ever sales by promoting a single feature of the smartphone, taking photos. Due to all the buzz surrounding this campaign, more and more members of the general public are partaking by sharing their photos online. With over 10,000 installations globally, the campaign could not be avoided as it covered many major billboards in cities across the globe.

References: Dormehl, L. (2015, June 24) Apple’s award-winning ‘Shot on iPhone’ ads are a ‘game-changer’ Retrieved from: https://www.cultofmac.com/327156/apples-award-winning-shot-on-iphone-ads-are-a-game-changer/Nudd, T. (2017, June 28) Apple Celebrates Summer With Joyful Worldwide ‘Shot on iPhone’ Out-of-Home Campaign Retrieved from: https://www.adweek.com/creativity/apple-celebrates-summer-with-joyful-worldwide-shot-on-iphone-out-of-home-campaign/

Burns, W. (2015, June 24) New iPhone 6 Advertising Campaign From Apple Puts The Focus On Our Creativity, Not Theirs Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/willburns/2015/06/24/new-iphone-6-advertising-campaign-from-apple-puts-the-focus-on-our-creativity-not-theirs/#b985d8d2ddcaO’Reilly, L. (2016, February 4) Why Apple is rebooting its ‘game-changer’ billboard ads Retrieved from: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/why-apple-is-re-running-its-shot-on-iphone-ad-campaign-2016-2?r=US&IR=T

Shot on iPhone

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50

1.39

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

11.63 20.7339.99

72.29

125.05

150.26

Unit Sales of the iPhone Globally from 2007 to 2017 (in millions)

169.22

231.22

211.88 216.76

100

150

250

300

200

Market Share in Number of Units Sold in 2017

Photos on Flickr sorted by device type as of 2017 Photos on Flickr sorted by device brand as of 2017