What’s the success of Apple’s product launches? 7 things you should know

If there’s a brand in the world has changed completely the paradigm of product launches, by making them almost like a sports event where thousands of attendees are driven to an arena with the excitement of seeing this “performance”, Apple is the one.

For anyone starting a business, scaling a company, or maturing a global organization by keeping constant innovation on the edge, you will need to learn how to make a successful product launch.

In more of a decade, the growth of online digital marketing has been exponentiated by Google AdWords, FacebookAds and Instagram influencer advertising, while Apple scaled its revenues for more than $230 billion a year.

A lot of buzz, excitement, and awareness is created yearly around the brand that accomplished one thing that all brands and businesses dream:

• Having customers comfortable in paying more for their product instead of the competitors.

But what makes Apple’s customers turn into evangelists, and then has their biggest seller in the word-of-mouth distribution channel?

Storytelling.

Apple makes you feel part of their journey and Apple the reverse effect to happen on you, by having their products operating as an extension of your body and amplify your human capabilities to perform a better and happier life.

How did they make this possible?

With exceptional product launches, that make any Apple customer or potential lead feel part of their vision.

“Some people see innovation as change, but we have never really seen it like that. It’s making things better.” Tim Cook

Let’s look at 7 factors that make this product launches a tremendous success:

Advertisements are cliche

Apple has a smaller advertising budget than Microsoft; in fact, smaller than most of its competitors. The former’s ad spends are under $1 billion — can you believe it? In fact, in the year of 2013, only 0.64% of Apple’s revenues went to marketing; whereas Samsung spent 3.51% on sales promotion.

This is too less for a tech giant, right? It is. But why spend unnecessarily when you can target Hollywood?

Apple has spent years tightening its grip on Hollywood. Unlike many companies, it never pays for its products to appear in movies or on television.

Remember Phil Dunphy’s quote from ABC’s hit sitcom Modern Family, “The iPad comes out on my actual birthday. It’s like God and Steve Jobs got together and said, ‘We love you, Phil.’”

That wasn’t a paid advertisement by the way.

It was the year 2010, and the first iPad had hit the Apple stores. However, it seemed iPad was so hyped that it practically advertised itself! Even Phil Dunphy couldn’t stop raving about it on television!

And you know what? Apple sold 300,000 iPads in the US alone two days prior its launch.

Insanely exceptional experience, not the features

First, tell me — how many of you have actually browsed through the complete manual before starting to use your iPhones? None of you. Because you don’t need to do. However you learn of the features, you know you are going to enjoy the process. Apple focuses more on offering a “better experience”. It always emphasizes on the way the product affects you.

Be it Samsung or BlackBerry — these brands mostly talk about the features and specifications of their products. But Apple? It tells you how an iPhone or an iPad can change your life.

Apple understands its marketing strategy won’t work unless it works on smart quantities. It never talks about pricing. But the fact is you will pay a lot more to buy an Apple product than a competitor’s product (remember what I mentioned above?) with practically all the same features. Why?

Because of “that” experience.

That experience is converted in an amazing story-telling, that later is maximized on stage during their launch event.

“Organic” influence

McAfee’s CMO states users drive 80% of the internet’s impressions. Influencer marketing is the most cost-effective channel to acquire new customers. And who makes the most of it? Apple.

Apple gets expert bloggers and thought leaders on board way before the product launch. They get everyone talking about the upcoming event for months — way before there’s even a demo for anyone to see. The catch is — no one talks about what the product does. Instead, they talk about what it might do.

Apple throws a bone to the influencers without revealing too much.

It starts the engine but doesn’t move forward before the product is actually launched. So when the day actually arrives, Apple doesn’t start cold. It launches “like a boss”. Smart, right?

Apple has a knack of deliberately releasing very, very few details about their upcoming products. When the iPad’s launch was anticipated, the rumor mill was filled with speculation. No one knew anything about it but people went as far as creating realistic 3D mockups of it, hoping to get traction on their blogs.

But the time iPad finally launched, its reputation had grown to fabled proportions.

I quite like this — “A customer doesn’t buy a smartphone, he buys an iPhone. He doesn’t buy a tablet, He buys an iPad.”

Recently, Apple has unveiled a video and news subscription, becoming the first major new digital services from the company since 2015, and invited Hollywood stars, including Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Garner, and director JJ Abrams, to attend the launch event.

The video service is similar to Amazon.com Inc’s Prime Video and Netflix Inc products and will include TV shows and movies either acquired or funded by Apple.

Again, we see the process being repeated on focusing on key influencers, to create the hype of the product before the launch and collect feedback on what the experience might be.

Takeaway: Influencer marketing helps in driving sales but connecting with the right people in the industry takes time. Don’t start just a few months before your next big launch. Plan a year ahead to get in the good books of the influencers. Network heavily. This type of marketing does involve some sort of financial investment. But trust me — it is worth the efforts.

Create suspense

Apple understands this better than anyone else. So what does it do? It weaves suspense around its new product launch.

Everyone would pretty much know that Apple is about to launch a new product. Of course, bloggers and journalists will start writing about it.

Now, if you would have gone to Google and searched for “Apple launch” before the launch, you would have seen words like “reportedly” used frequently within the news articles.

Apple is known to serve tidbits of info to the press to keep them hooked on what’s about to come.

But would anyone exactly know what the product is? Nope.

Apple stays mum till the D-Day. Not even a hint on Twitter!

On the day of launch, Apple CEO Tim Cook will walk on stage and overwhelm the world.

Takeaway: Creating suspense around a new product is not rocket science. You just have to make sure you start planning it way in advance. Your pre-launch activities have to be consistent and comprise a subtle message.

Info online

That sounds obvious but pay more attention to this:

As soon as the product is launched, the Apple homepage gets taken over by full-page banners for new phones with simple, high-impact images and quick links to a video and landing pages from where you can retrieve more information about the products.

Takeaway: Your website content should always resonate the offerings you promise during the launch. Whether the big unveil happens on social media or during a webinar, you must always ensure your website supports your launch. Don’t deprive the potential customers of more information.

Visual storytelling

Think Apple, think of the world’s biggest product innovations. But the pre-launch ads and videos are even more compelling.

Apple created a series of short videos to promote the Apple Watch besides providing a guided tour video of the product. It did the same for Apple X. Slick, short and to-the-point — Apple had everyone instantly hooked to its latest offering.

Going back to 2006 when Apple launched the “Get A Mac” campaign starring Hodgman and Justin Long as PC and Mac respectively. They stood against a white backdrop, introduced themselves and had a conversation. There was no mention of the product features. Just two guys having a chitchat. It did make a big impression.

Remember Taylor Swift lip-syncing to Drake and Future’s hit number “Jumpman”?

It was a funny advert with Taylor running on the treadmill and ultimately slipping and hurting herself. Do you know what the advert was for? Apple Music, of course. You can see one of those, here.

Did the ad mention Apple Music even once? Visually — once, at the beginning. It was a subtle gimmick but it stayed in the mind, didn’t it?

Takeaway: Today, content is not just restricted to the written text. It also means gifs, infographics, and videos. You can also start to create a hype before launch through teasers. Remember — there is always one grand piece and some smaller ones accompanying it. Imagine — if your customers like the trailer, they would be excited to know what the full-blown party will look like!

The event, the in-real-life experience, the community

Oh yes… Oh yes…

Now is the time.

Apple doesn’t take this lightly. With all the pre-launch chatter, emphasis on influencer marketing, the location, and size of the attendee list — Apple makes sure it is committed to the news it is about to impart.

It doesn’t matter whether you are flying in for the event or watching the live cast — the experience has to be spellbinding for each and every attendee.

The event is like a grand finale for Apple. And it takes place at the right time.

In a live-setting, the real-time product demo validates the products that everyone has been talking about while showing off in immersive, high-resolution glory.

For the ones reading this, Youcanevent.com is your first place to go if you are looking to organize In-Real-Life experiences like a product launch.

It’s very useful because it brings package suggestions for events like product launches, by aggregating all the services you need (e.g. venues, catering, photography services, etc) for a successful product launch, and offers you two major perks:

1. An event assistant to help you onsite during the event for up 2 hours
2. Video footages of the event offered to the event creator that later can be shared through the Youcanevent community portal, for engagement with all the attendees.

Youcanevent community also is a great platform to start creating the hype for your event and engage with like-minded attendees.

Here’s an example of a video offered to an event creator, after their In-Real-Life experience.

In this video, we’ve covered the dynamics of a product launch, the type of content you should have, and the speakers invited.

Also, if you want to quickly understand the 5 steps on how to organize a fireside chat properly, take a look at the topics mentioned below:

1. Always make a slide with the faces and names of the speakers

Have your attendees 100% synced with what’s happening at the event! We’ve seen that by including the profile pics, name, and short bio of the speakers you can give full background on who are the speakers, what’s their expertise, and how people can connect with them post the event.

2. Always take a group photo for community engagement

Community! Community! Community! We can’t tell how many times people forget to show appreciation and gratitude for the attendee’s effort to join the event, and believe in your mission. We always advise organizers to take pictures and make their event perpetuate in a beautiful snap.

Pro tip: If you use Youcanevent.com the event assistant onsite (that we offer) can do this work for you 😃

3. Invite a guest speaker to use your event as a platform for his/her promotion

Building the content of your event it’s also one of the most important things to look at, but sometimes event organizers don’t know what’s the payback or what can they offer to a famous speaker.
Offer community, offer your platform, offer your attendees, and offer a moment to the speaker to promote something of their interest!

Yes! Sounds to salesy?

It’s not! We’ve seen that attendees love to have the opportunity to get an autographed book signed or special access to one of their next events!

Be creative and let them engage with your audience!

4. Take pictures to each attendee

Curious fact!? Do you know how Facebook grew its user database in its early days?
With albums of nightclub, corporate, and social events.

That’s right! Event organizers would hire photographers to take shots to all the attendees, and later these event organizers (either night clubs or institutions) would identify these attendees and create massive engagement with heir brand, by being featured in hundreds of user feeds all over the social network.

Pro tip: Youcanevent as an internal community feed where all the pictures and videos of the event are shared, to help you reach new potential attendees for your next event

5. Film video footages of the event

And now the most important one! How can you show to future attendees how your event looks like?
With a beautiful video!
Make a live-stream, or just film video footages and share later on YouTube and build content for your brand!

Pro tip: When booking through Youcanevent we offer an event assistant to help you onsite and film video footages of your event. Hundreds of videos are posted every month on Youcanevent.com with the events that are being created in the network.

Hope you enjoyed the article! If you have any suggestions, critics or ideas please feel free to reach out to us and share your feedback.
Also, Youcanevent.com is hiring in all positions, feel free to contact us via our company’s page on LinkedIn.