Where Apple ads go next

It’s rare for a company to have fingers in quite so many pies as the iPhone (and iPad, and Mac, and Apple Music, and AppStore…) maker; a new tie-in with the artist Olivia Rodrigo on TikTok encapsulates these capabilities and how it can present itself as a cultural nexus.

Why it matters

The observation, made by Fast Company, that the Gen-Z icon’s latest video – Brutal – is as much a vehicle to promote the song as it is to show off Apple’s presence across the whole creative process is a strong one. While it’s true that few firms have either the budget or fanbase that Apple enjoys, but there are still lessons to be learned.

What’s happening

• Just three days after the release of the official video that features extensive use of a FacePaint feature from Procreate, which allows users to design their own “masks”, effectively DIY filters like those made famous by Snap Chat, Apple cast its “Made on iPad” net over the video.
• Of course, the brand has anchored its image firmly to creators – with particularly heavy use of artists – before with its ‘Behind the Mac’ campaign.
• Where this diverges is not only the importance of the computer to music (it’s most likely that a Mac was used at some point in the creation of Brutal), but how sound and vision are made through its devices and, ultimately, distributed across its music platform.
• While it may not control TikTok, where the hashtag #BrutalMasks has taken off, with people emulating the moving masks from the video.

Key quote

“Apple tools are used to create the content we consume on Apple devices, but also used to create the advertising for both the content and the devices. There is almost no part in that equation untouched by the brand” – Jeff Beer, Staff Editor, Fast Company.

Sourced from FastCompany