One of the things that made me LOVE marketing as a whole and as a career was creativity. The world of marketing—particularly the world of advertising—is full of magic and color: it is a place where polar bears have soft drinks with their families, and brands bring ideas and magic out of thin air.
And, while the world of marketing is magical, it can also be cruel and competitive: an advertising piece can backfire and bring the opposite effect to what you are trying to convey.
Let’s talk about Apple.
Crushing The Competition
I am not an Apple lover. In reality, I am a device killer: each iPhone I have owned has ended up broken—sometimes beyond repair—proving that they are very delicate pieces of technology, or I am clumsy beyond repair. Regardless of what I think and of the eternal battle between Android and Apple users about who is better and whatnot, there is ONE thing that we cannot deny: Apple is good at marketing its products.
One of the most famous ads from Apple is the 1984 Super Bowl Ad for Macintosh—one of the most iconic Super Bowl Ads of all time if you ask me—the portrayed dystopian future and their statement to fight conformity reinforced the idea of Apple as a revolutionary brand, creating immense anticipation for their products. Pure art that, to this day, most schools and advertisers will refer to one way or the other.
Moving forward to today, a bit over two weeks ago, a new ad was launched by Apple for the new iPad.
The idea behind the ad is simple: it is a statement of how the new iPad can CRUSH any task while being their thinnest product yet. Simple but effective, it conveys the message—but it might have some flaws.
Apple’s Creative Audience—The Backslash
Let’s sit for a second and analyze WHO is Apple’s Audience. We all know that one of the biggest targets that Apple pursues is CREATIVES: professionals working in specialized software like music, video, photography, and all kinds of design careers. Considering this single fact, maybe crushing instruments, paint, and other art pieces might not have been the best of ideas.
The ad received a TON of backlash—to the point of being removed from TV and issuing an apology—showing how important understanding and respecting the values and sensibilities of your target audience is. Nobody likes seeing their work tools, hobbies, and things they love crushed. Creatives might not be ok with the idea of their tools and symbols of creativity being dispensable.
At the end of the day, this ad and the backlash were a lesson: even the most beautifully crafted message can go south if it fails to resonate with or, worse, offends the audience it aims to engage.
A Creative Response—Samsung
Remember how I started this article talking about how ✨magical✨ and creative the marketing industry can be? One of the things I absolutely LOVE about this industry is the capacity creatives have to turn BAD into GOOD in a second.
Samsung has been a long-time competitor of Apple—it is kind of the same eternal battle between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, but with phones—and, of course, they were going to react and use this in their favor as much as they could: a week after the Apple ad aired, Samsung gave us this masterpiece:
“Creativity cannot be crushed“—a brilliant response. Samsung saw the opportunity and SEIZED IT. Part of the magic of marketing is the ability to take your competitor’s experiences and turn them in your favor.
The Takeaways
Both ads teach us a very important lesson: the same industry that creates enchanting ads can also be unforgiving. Advertising and marketing, in general, are very competitive fields where having an in-depth understanding of your audience’s values, preferences, and sensitivities becomes crucial.
Ensuring that bold statements do not inadvertently offend or alienate the intended audience and being prepared to respond swiftly and constructively to feedback and criticism are not optional.
Of course, let’s not forget: using your competitors’ missteps as an opportunity to highlight your strengths and values is always an option as long as you do it the right way.
At the end of the day, the world of marketing is a blend of art and science, where balancing creativity with strategic insight is a MUST.
