Three important marketing lessons from Apple's latest iPhone adverts

The next few years will be interesting for Apple. With innovation inevitably slowing and consumers becoming aware of its incremental design tactics there will be worries in the camp.

But regardless of these growing concerns, there is no question that Apple is still marketing in a way which is incomparable to any other brand.

While the company is still innovating in its marketing output, we should take a second to learn a thing or two… 

1. Creating sensual intrigue

To most, hearing would be without question the second most important sense when it comes to video based advertising. Visually striking images can be highly captivating and there is no arguing the power of the medium for influencing its audience.

However, channels are saturated, with more adverts than ever taking up longer break periods. As a consequence, viewers senses have been numbed, their brains trained to tune off between their favourite entertainment programs.

With this in mind, there is a brilliant quote from David Ogilvy that springs to mind…

Try running your commercial with the sound turned off. If it doesn't tell without sound, it is useless." 

However, Apple appears to have taken this theory one step further. Not only does it ensure that the messages can be conveyed without sound, but it has made it draw in viewers.

I learnt this from personal experience. When I was deep in concentration trying to cook a chicken korma on a dull Tuesday I naturally had the television talking to itself in the background…

Queue an Apple advert and the continuous droning of brands trying to sell stopped, replaced by almost silence, naturally it had got my attention. What has happened to my television set?!

The answer was nothing; it is just an incredible smart piece of adverting which grabbed my attention without grabbing at me.   

2. Consistency through time and across product ranges

Too often brands lack consistency, whether that is between offline and online marketing collateral, or page by page on a website.

In fact, it is not unusual to see brands rehashing their logos, slogans and branding on a regular basis. I am always sad to see this, as familiarity is one of the most important attributes in creating brand loyalty and if a company keeps changing its image, how can an advocate remain faithful?

Apple has ensured that is not the case, you can look through advertising material from the last decade and you will always find comparable characteristics.

While it moves forward and develops, there is a clear progression so there is never too much variance between models and product generations. Apple encourages brand loyalty this way.

This consistency is present in the latest collection of adverts which you can watch below on your lunch break!

FaceTime Every Day

Music Every Day

Photos Every Day

3. Inspiring, encouraging imagination and drawing emotion

With content marketing buzz at a record high, Apple should be a best-in-class example to give you inspiration.

Apple has focused on the environment that the product is used in rather than the actual products features. Whether it is someone snapping a breath taking landscape, a woman sharing relationship problems on FaceTime or someone listening to music on their bus home, they are all experiences which we can relate to, regardless of our device, language or location.

Experiences that we can relate to naturally bring out emotions, which is why emotive marketing remains one of the most powerful ways to appeal to an audience, just ask a non-profit!

Knowing that it was likely that these advertisements would be drawing emotion from viewers, I thought it would be interesting to see the impact of these adverts on social sentiment. Using Topsy I dug into social conversations (well worth a free trial if you haven't tried it) and this is what I found.

The FaceTime advert launched on the 5^th of August 2013, doesn't look good does it…

(click image for larger version)

However, from having a closer look at the conversations it is completely misleading. In fact, the sentiment analysis tool had been segmenting words such as "cried" and "tears" as negative and completely misunderstood the conversations.

If you stop to think about it, this is the best form of social advocacy that Apple could have ever hoped for.

The first thing you are going to do when your friend posts something like this is to head to YouTube to watch it!

Before you know it, Apple has produced a marketing campaign which will snowball socially without any profiles to even distribute it. The viewers have become the distributors, every brands ideology.

What other brands have you seen using emotive advertising to its potential?