Apple’s scary event: a B-team production
You never knew exactly how Steve Jobs would react when you presented a new idea. The only thing you could count on was his brutal honesty.
But, even if he rejected the work, all was not lost. It was simply part of the process. Steve knew that creative work is often iterative, so we’d keep at it until we arrived at a place we all loved. It was a process that actually deepened our relationship over time.
That said, one meeting is seared into my brain because Steve made a particularly biting comment. Not seeing anything he liked in a range of work, he said, “Oh, so you put the B-team on this one.”
Ouch.
In those few words, he questioned how seriously we took the assignment, not to mention our ability to see the difference between “great” and “good enough.” Message received loud and clear. An error in judgment never repeated.
This memory came to the fore because that’s exactly how Apple’s Halloween Eve event made me feel—like the assignment had been relegated to the B-team.
Let’s start with the Halloween concept itself. Somehow, inexplicably, the team thought this was brilliant, up to and including Tim Cook.
Just imagining the pitch makes me cringe. “Hey, Halloween is coming—let’s do a primetime show with a Halloween theme! We’ll use dark backgrounds, spooky lighting, a few bats, a skeleton and phrases like scary fast and monster speed.“
Frighteningly amateurish.
What made it feel tackier still was that the event simply wasn’t necessary. The new processors are newsworthy, but in the absence of any other announcements, they’re not event-worthy. This primetime scare-fest had only thirty minutes of content—too much of which was devoted to in-the-weeds explanations only a WWDC crowd could love.
The M3 story deserved fanfare on the Apple website, a healthy dose of PR and some great ads touting the new technology. Instead, we got an event that was ill-conceived and as creative as a store-bought Halloween costume.
Exactly what can be expected when you call in the B-team.
I think the missing piece here is in the earnings announcement this week – Apple needs a bump in Mac sales through the holidays, hence the launch event instead of, as you note, a press release and some ads.
Good point. Agree. But… perhaps a little more pzazz in this Halloween event.
Where I come from, there is no excuse for a substandard event or substandard thinking. If juicing holiday sales was the goal, a great ad campaign and PR would be more disruptive and effective. Of course they can do both—event and ads—but this event failed to meet Apple standards for content and style. That only diminishes the brand.
Fortunately, I think this event will be quickly forgotten, especially if new ads break. Normally, that happens soon after the event, but I see nothing yet. Another question mark…
“this event failed to meet Apple standards for content and style.”
I’m not quite as negative about the event as you are but not by much. The Halloween theme was utterly pointless. I would have thought that, if they were going to do it, they DO IT whole hog. Instead, they half-assed it.
And a 30-minute event? Yeah – it could have been a press release.
I loved the “Shot on iPhone” line (and the accompanying behind-the-scenes video) but not using/showing the use of Final Cut Pro is a bit embarrassing.
Apple is a victim of their own success. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this was the B Team (I don’t think Apple even *HAS* a B Team! 🙂 ) but it definitely wasn’t up to their and our standards and expectations.
Trust me, Apple is more than capable of putting a B-team on an assignment. I’ve seen it from the inside. I’m sure this is true for most companies, our agency included. Steve demanded that only the top people work on his business—which made his comment all the more frustrating. We were innocent of all charges!
Maybe I’m in the minority, but I absolutely ate up all the “spooky Halloween” theme elements of the production. Deliciously and delightfully cheesy and silly, but in a way that didn’t make me cringe the way Microsoft always did when they attempted silliness.
The messaging felt like it needed to be rethought though. It seemed aimed at the dev crowd who cares about stats when they should’ve put all their effort into telling stories and showing how the new tech benefits consumers and the creative community, most of whom don’t give one whit about stats and numbers.
It seems like “shot on iPhone” was the main point: show people it’s possible to produce an Apple event video using the new iPhones just after they shipped, but do it for a non-mission-critical event.
Seeing Premiere being used and Apple talking about its speed on the new M3 was definitely surprising, but maybe they wanted to cater to users of both programs when talking about how fast the new processors are.
I continue to enjoy your special insights on Apple’s marketing and strategy. If viewed in a vacuum, this made no sense. However, in view of Qualcomm and Microsoft making a big announcement with their Apple Silicon-like chips with AI inside, Apple had to do something meaningful. I guess these are “scripted,” but they do get the right response — free attention.
Hi Om, good to hear from you. I suppose the real issue here is, what is “meaningful.” My feeling is that the Halloween event was poorly conceived. A great ad campaign—which is still mysteriously MIA—would be far more meaningful. It would be more interruptive, appearing in general media and not requiring people to “tune in.” It would also keep the message alive over whatever period of time Apple finds it necessary. This event, not terribly impressive, just came and went.
Yes, the whole thing was kind of a 30 minute infomercial you might expect on QVC. Somehow they managed to combine cringe with boring. The “shot on iPhone” was the best thing about it. The whole thing could have been reduced to 5 – 10 minutes. Way too many “our new device is X% faster than our old device” obtuse comparisons.
“Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new” – Steve
We’re still waiting..