The Brilliance in Apple Commercials

I am sure you have seen a number of Apple ads in your day, I never watch T.V. and I have managed to see plenty of them. Their ads, like them or not, are VERY effective and if there is anything I have learned while building our company and helping others do the same it is to take what works for the experts and make it work for you.

Apple is the second-largest company in the world (at the time of this entry) and for good reason. They design incredible products and market them with a skill that is one to be admired. Their marketing strategy and execution are absolutely brilliant.

The genius in their design emulates the brilliance in their marketing. Their design sings a song of simplicity and dare I say intuitiveness (a joke obviously as Apple fans always use that as the go-to word when describing their products). The interesting part is that their commercials sing the same tune but sung in the key of marketing.

Their latest commercial with the Williams sisters is no different than the previous commercials in regards to their simplicity. But what I found most interesting about this one was what feature they decided to exemplify through the 30-second’ dream’.

They pointed to one of the features of the phone called the “Do Not Disturb” feature. It is a pretty cool feature for the phone as it allows you to tell the phone to leave you alone essentially. You can also tell it to only let people on certain lists, like your ‘favorites’, call when you are in the DND mode. Another cool feature is that the call will go through if they call twice within 3 minutes (in case of emergency).

But here is the deal, these features are really not that cool. You can simply put your phone on silent, turn it off, put it in airplane mode or leave it in the living room while you snooze in your cave. So why would they spend tons of cash to sell you on an iPhone with a relatively weak feature? …Because they are selling you the idea of dreaming and not being disturbed.

Everyone (as far as I know) dreams… Not a small demographic of people or a certain race or sex, but EVERYONE. So the idea of dreaming an awesome dream (like beating the Williams sisters in a ping pong match) is one we can all relate to. Dreams are universal and we all have an emotional reaction to the ad, because we all relate to that super awesome dream we would never want to be awoken from by a friend calling to tell us something much less interesting than winning the lottery and spending the winnings on the world’s biggest party (a dream obviously).

So here is the lesson we have learned from Apple… You are not selling a product or service, you are selling dreams, a more productive work environment, a healthier lifestyle, a better world in general. What is it about your product or service that really resonates with your clients? Sell them that idea, not the product or service, sell them the why, not the how.