Stick to the Crowd - Apple and the Creative Crowd
http://youtu.be/5DHYe4dhjXw
It doesn’t take the brilliance of Neil deGrasse Tyson to know that Apple has a long and storied history of incredible advertising. They have used everything from dancing to hip wit in an effort to appeal to their audience. Their campaigns aim to empower the Apple user base as the cutting edge of technology and culture. The result is that Apple is synonymous with artists and the digital creative community.
In their latest ad, Apple has reached out to their creative community for some help. This ad uses stickers designed for MacBooks to great effect in a stop motion style advertisement. The flow of one sticker to another is so well executed you would think Jan Švankmajer was the visual consultant. The stickers themselves range from Breaking Bad’s Heisenberg to abstract patterns, making the ad familiar yet original.
Apple didn’t create these stickers. Every Macbook ships out with the same brushed aluminum clamshell with an Apple logo in the center. Nor are Apple users the first to sticker up their laptops. However, a quick Etsy search will illustrate the impressive cottage industry that has popped up around Macbook decals. It turns out that fostering a creative culture leads to inventive uses for your product.
Apple was able to make this ad by embracing the creative power of the Apple crowd. Yet again, we are shown that crowdsourcing is not limited to funding or cut rate work. The creative crowd is capable of reinventing the world in real time. And brands stand to reap the spoils by engaging. It’s not enough to simply speculate based on limited data. A brand has to engage with their customer community and notice the little things, like Etsy stickers for their product. The wisdom is in the crowd. All one has to do is tune in.