During the most visible time of the year for the brand and @apple, we leaned into a community insight to engage our audience authentically. Every year when Apple launched its new iPhone, we saw a huge spike in conversation about the product, coupled with an interest and intrigue around what the device is capable of capturing and seeing the human proof to believe it. In 2018, we focused on giving the community what they wanted, offering up a bespoke social campaign and first look at stunning visuals from the latest device for our Instagram and YouTube community. The key behind this concept was a behind the scenes look at how the content was made.

This experimental concept was different than what we were used to releasing around a keynote, but inevitably captured the attention of our community with unprecedented results.

At a time when product-led advertising traditionally dominates Apple’s brand communications, our social concept was a human-led piece focused on capturing everyday elements in a beautiful, unexpected way and demonstrating for consumers that mind-blowing imagery is within reach for them as well. The behind-the-scenes content sat at the core of the idea, showing the viewer how the content was made and letting the power and simplicity of the new device shine through. We coupled the experimental visuals with an original score which brought the scenes to life and lent more gravitas to the content during a time when the spotlight was on for exceptional content.

The innovation of the device was shown off naturally and in line with consumer demand for making-of content.

We looked into our audience’s relationship with brands in the age of social-media. The most important insight emerging from this research was the importance of the journey from “purchase brand” to “usage brand.” A usage brand is about what you do with your product after you have it -- less what goes into your smartphone, and more what you get out of it. A key component of driving this mindset shift is sharing inspiring content in a way that feels accessible, and we knew from our community’s previous feedback that our typical pro-style photography released at device launch can seem out of reach.

In the second year of @apple, we focused even more on the creative power of the iPhone camera, not its specifications. Experiments helped users understand how to harness the power of the new device with easy-to-grasp, behind-the-scenes moments featuring everyday elements that they could shoot at home.

We released this content right as the new iPhone was announced globally. This was a first look at what the new device was capable of, and the human proof of how it was made. it was an integrated social campaign across Instagram and YouTube with the marquee behind the scenes film living on YouTube, and Instagram acting as a home for the visual output of the device in-feed and on IGTV. We directed viewers to watch long form content on IGTV and discover how everything was made in IG Stories driving to the full YouTube film for more. All assets were bespoke for the channel with a seamless user experience in mind.

This innovative approach to showcase the power of the iPhone XS during our biggest moment of the year blew away our Instagram channel benchmarks in just 24 hours with $0 paid media, including:

6M combined reach in-feed and in Instagram Stories, our highest totals on both channels.

2.2M video views, double our previous high.

483K in-feed post likes, 170K more than our next highest post.

A 12% in-feed Engagement Rate, the best for any Apple video.

Our Instagram Story took the audience behind the scenes and kept them engaged. We saw an 82% completion rate, the highest we'd ever seen on the channel, and the audience was even looking for more, with 42K swiping up to watch more BTS content on Apple's YouTube account.