Why make commercials when you can shoot a film?
Nowadays, we are all obsessed with fast speed. The Olympics slogan starts with “faster”, the car we like are sports cars, we eat fast food, we shoot Tik-Tok videos, and we never wait till the green light shows on the crosswalk(Or maybe just New Yorker do so). That’s why commercials keep shortening their ads, from 60 seconds down to 15 seconds and even 5 seconds. They try to let us at least remember the name before clicking “skip the ad” and care zero about anything else than that. But, not all companies do so. At least, not all their ads do so.
Apple just released their newest commercial in China, a 23 minutes video shot by iPhone 13 Pro called The Comeback, a multi-genre movie about making a movie. This is the fifth Chinese New Year movie(CNY movie, in the following article) that Apple has made since 2018. Apple released its first CNY movie Three Minutes in 2018, shot by Peter Chan, one of the most famous Chinese directors. It is a real story about a family reunion. In 2019, Apple invited another famous Chinese director and screenwriter, Jia Zhangke, to film The Bucket. A story about a son traveling from his rural hometown to his city apartment while carrying precious cargo, which at the end found out were eggs from his mother. Daughter, directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Theodore Melfi and stars Zhou Xun, China’s leading actress, is the 2020 Apple CNY movie. In 2021, Apple Collaborated Wang Ziyi, the 2020 Golden Globe Awards for Best Foreign Language Film director, with A Nian. All of them were shot by the latest iPhone, starting from iPhone X to iPhone 13. And all of them, more or less, show part of Chinese culture and tradition. Most importantly and surprisingly, none showed an Apple product during the film.
So, let’s have a look at these movies.
No flattery, do the job.
Apple is always using the most straightforward language in its advertising. The newest Apple CNY movie is 23 mins, and not a single word talked about the camera system. Instead, Apple chose to let the audience experience the sharp and detailed videos through the macro-focusing scene in the movie. Advertisers always worry about “if I don’t tell my audiences directly, how are they going to know how well we have done?” but the truth is always that people don’t trust your words; they trust the action. And, that’s what Apple did. After holding my iPhone for 23 minutes without switching from different apps, I still knew nothing technical about iPhone 13 Pro; all I remembered was that I could film a movie with an iPhone. That’s just enough.
Be unique, be yourself.
One of the other eye-catching points is the idea of the movie itself. How many international companies are willing to film a movie for a foreign festival? The unique celebration makes it hard for Chinese people to ignore the advertisement as we can sense the sincerity of this special campaign. In China, Apple always creates customized campaigns and targeted events, which essentially help itself differentiate from the competition. What Apple does is not only let itself be seen by the audiences, but also let its audience remember its uniqueness.
No trick, connect the emotion.
When talking about emotion in advertising, we always assume it is about the emotion to be the brand’s representation. For example, a food company like McDonald’s or Lays likes to associate itself with happiness and joy, while a health promotion ad uses a terrifying image to warn its audiences. Apple did neither of them. Each of Apple’s CNY movie conveys a different feeling, none of them are associated with the brand, but all of them is deeply connected with audiences. The solid emotional expression in the film makes it easy for viewers to forget that this is a commercial in nature, and therefore, they are more likely to watch it with full attention. Full attention leads to deep memory. It has been five years since the first CNY movie came out, but I still remember what it is about and the touching feeling Apple delivered.
Interestingly, watching Apple CNY movies is gradually becoming part of my tradition during the Chinese New Year. I can’t help but keep wondering what the surprise will be in next year. Now you see the power of telling a story.
This is Yang’s blog. Thanks for your reading. And see you next week :)
