Forever, Still, and Awesomely Crazy.
For the last couple of weeks, a big chunk of the global creative community has licked its chops, sharpened its fangs, and had way too much fun piling onto Apple’s “Crunch” ad.
The good people at BBH for client Samsung, went so far as to produce the best “capitalizing on someone else’s misstep” snark since Aviation Gin spun Peloton’s wheels.
All good sport, I’m sure. Even if it’s dubious you’ll find a smiley face carved into an Apple at the moment.
True confession, I was among the pilers-on. Although, as posted yesterday, for what I’ve concluded were the wrong reasons (https://lnkd.in/ec-8rmg6). And that gets me thinking — critique is for the pointy headed critics in the cheap seats.
Real idiots come up with their own ideas.
Yesterday, I made the argument that the root cause of Apple’s slip wasn’t creative error, it was failed strategy. Today, I’m wondering what the root cause of the root cause might be.
Here’s a wild-ass swing: Apple, like tech as a whole, hasn’t had major hardware innovation to talk about since the 2007 launch of the iPhone itself. Meanwhile, over the years, the products have increasingly veered to parity — phones, tablets, laptops, SaaS platforms, clouds, you name it, all same-same with different names.
When those are the cards you’re dealt, no question: you play them. In Apple’s case, fairly brilliantly with what are essentially product demos like “Shot On” and even “The Greatest.”
“Crunch,” however, was an attempt to play a different hand, the one that tries to build on product difference as a USP. Problem is that “all the stuff in a marginally thinner box” is hardly news worth as much as $1300 more versus the still-available previous model.
Worse yet, because that’s a parity claim for what is essentially a parity product, you wind up undercutting two of Apple’s main brand pillars: creative, and creative’s, liberation. And “think different.”
My thought: if you’re going to recycle old strategic platforms because you have to, why not return to the real glory days? Which, in the Apple canon, is either a time dated one-off (“why 1984 won’t be like 1984”) or the timeless “Here’s to the Crazy Ones” still celebrated as leading competitor for GOAT manifesto.
My thought: why not build the strategy around “Forever Crazy” by way of renewing your vows.
Let the boos and hisses begin.
