Going into the 5th year of Apple’s annual Shot on iPhone Chinese New Year campaign, the direction of establishing iPhone’s camera superiority remains true while now taking it to the next level to showcase iPhone as a movie-grade camera made for everyone.

To illustrate iPhone 13 Pro’s superiority as a movie-grade camera that allows everyone to pursue their filmmaking dreams, we made a movie about misfits making a movie. This 23-minute film shot entirely on iPhone follows a disheartened young wannabe director, his father, and a rag-tag crew of villagers to shoot an out-of-this-world movie in hopes of reviving their village by making it “internet famous”. The film encourages everyone to never stop believing in their dreams—even if that dream is as far away as Mars.

From Hollywood-level sci-fi, to Kung Fu action, to nostalgic comedy, we put iPhone to the ultimate test, demonstrating it’s capabilities by capturing 3 distinct camera languages in 1 film. This approach of a “movie within a movie” gave us the perfect stage to showcase the limitless potential of iPhone in a movie filled with spectacular imagery.

As the camera remains a key purchase driver in smartphones, we wanted to reinforce iPhone’s camera superiority in filmmaking with our CNY SOiP campaign—made just like a Hollywood film but in a way that is accessible to anyone. While the main film entertained people with a story about a bunch of misfits turning the everyday into cinematic sci-fi moments through the lens of the iPhone, it also triggered viewers’ interest in learning more about the product through our BTS film. With the increasing motivation to experiment on their own, we fed them with TEACH content that inspired creators of all levels to film movie-grade videos with iPhone’s Cinematic mode and advanced low light, in a fun and attainable way.

Launched on January 21st, the first wave began with a cinematic trailer on paid media to generate anticipation (including TVO, pre-roll, Oneshot, Opening Page, Mastheads, Maxview, Weibo 1st in-feed, app opening pages). It was later broadcasted across national TV, satellite stations and cinemas to announce the premiere of the movie on Apple’s website and customized campaign pages on media platforms. Once there, viewers also got to watch the ‘Making of’ featurette as well as bespoke TEACH content that showed how attainable it is to create movies using iPhone.

The second wave of trailers began on January 28th. This time, we revealed the ingenious ways the iPhone was used to trigger audience curiosity and drive to the main film as well as TEACH to learn more about the product features.

The main film and BTS generated over 441 million views, up 63% from the previous year. The Comeback received a lot of media love, gaining both global and local traction. The focus of a local storyline and director Zhang Meng helped bring cultural resonance for Apple. CNY SOiP continued as an equity for iPhone by lifting people’s perception of the brand, understanding of iPhone’s key camera features and considerations to make purchases. A research survey showed 97% of people believed iPhone offers something unique that other smartphones don’t, while 82% of non-iPhone users expressed purchase intention to get an iPhone for its higher quality camera. What’s more, the already active everyday creators felt motivated to shoot more videos, with 80% of them seeing iPhone as a creative filmmaking tool for everyone to make movie-grade videos.