Shot on iPhone: a genius campaign
Apple's marketing man Tor Myhren explained at an advertising event how the campaign ‘Shot on iPhone’ actually originated. According to Myhren, it started out as a ridiculously simple idea. Apple billboards have been on the streets since the 1990s. Apple also used them for its famous ‘Think Different’ campaign. According to Myhren, it appears to be an effective medium, even in the current era of fast and temporary digital expressions. It stands still, it doesn't move and it goes against all the rules of today's marketing. Yet Apple likes to choose it.
Apple saw people using their iPhones to take pictures and post them online, tagged with different hashtags. Apple chose #ShotoniPhone to emphasize that a photo was taken with the iPhone and that turned out to be a bull's eye. Users took over to show that they can still take a nice picture with a simple camera.
The idea also turned out to be perfect for billboards. There you have limited space for text, but a ‘Shot on iPhone’ always fits and makes it immediately clear that the gigantic blown up photo you see was taken with a smartphone – and it actually looks good. And because they are photos of ordinary users, it also gives a more authentic effect: this was not taken by a professional photographer with a whole arsenal of lamps, flashes and filters, but by a user like you and me with a smartphone in his pocket. .
And the fact that your self-made photo could just appear on a billboard when you use the hashtag #ShotoniPhone persuades people to even add the hashtag to iPhone photos they're proud of. In short: simple idea, big effect. Will it ever become as legendary as the 'Think Different' campaign? We won't be able to judge that for another ten years, but the campaign is genius.