Episode 79 - Apple Watch Series 7 Ad Reviewed by Cisco and The Digital Voice
We have a bonus episode this week, reviewing the latest ad for Apple Watch Series 7, chosen by our partners Contagious.
It’s an emotional ad that makes a big impact, but will it get people to buy the watch or is it just a great branding exercise?
Are Apple preying on our fears or is this really good storytelling?
Watch the ad and see what our guests Emma Roffey (VP Marketing EMEAR at Cisco), Julia Linehan (Founder and Managing Director, The Digital Voice) and Jerry Daykin (in between two global media jobs) thought about it.
Transcript
The following transcript is automatically generated so may not be 100% accurate, but will give you a good idea of what was discussed.
Tom Ollerton 0:07
Hello and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated, and this is a show every week where brands review other brands' ads and discuss what's good and bad about them. We are brought to you by our partners, Contagious. So thanks those guys for sending an unending stream of innovative ads to choose from. But before we see this week's ad, let's meet this week's guests.
Emma Roffey 0:29
Hi, everyone. I'm Emma Roffey. I'm the V.P. of marketing at Cisco for EMEAR. And also I have another job which is running global advocacy at Cisco.
Julia Linehan 0:39
Hi, I'm Julia Linehan. I'm the founder and managing director of The Digital Voice.
Jerry Daykin 0:44
And I'm Jerry Daykin. I'm in between two global media jobs at the moment. So writing a book in my spare time.
Tom Ollerton 0:50
What a panel! Fantastic. Right, let's see this week's ad.
Right, Jerry, what do you think when you first saw that?
Jerry Daykin 1:57
I pretty much love it. I mean, it gives me tingles and emotion, and it's, you know, one hell of a product does something and let's, let it speak for yourself. It's a slightly nagging sort of like, "Oh, are they, are they trying to prey on people's worries and fears and things?" It gets me a little bit, but I think it's a great bit of filmmaking to sell us sort of technological device in a, in a way that, you know, hits home. You can't not pay attention to that advert really.
Emma Roffey 2:25
So I love its realness. It was genuine and actually using real people per se. I thought it was really powerful with being subtle as well. I don't have an Apple Watch and that one, I was like, "No, maybe I should. Maybe I should. That's a good point." So you know, not overtly selling, but very powerful and subtle. You know, when I say not overtly selling, there's no features, benefits or anything about the Apple Watch itself, but I love that with technology, that emotional connection. So I just love the authenticity of the realness of it really.
Tom Ollerton 3:00
Julia, have you got an Apple Watch? Is this going to tip you over the edge?
Julia Linehan 3:03
No, I'm PC and Android all the way. And actually, I would have loved an Apple Watch, but I've got an Android phone, so that's anything that still winds me up because the Android watches are nowhere near as comparative as those ones. But you actually can't get an Apple Watch unless you've got an Apple phone, which is a shame because that sold it to me three-for-three on this. That it was... It still has gives me goosebumps listening to it, and it is the simplicity of it. And I love that. It's so powerful because it's a really emotional and emotive subject anyway, if you were in trouble in that and you sort of think of I've got teenagers and that would be great for them to be able to use it. We're overwhelmed at the moment with adverts with a lot of people in because marketers are so keen and rightly so to be inclusive of all types of people. Some ads feel like they're going a bit too far, and it's a lot of people because they're trying to get it right. And this one felt like, oh, a little bit of a breathing space for the first non-human ad without people in my face. Jerry did that... Does that make sense to you? Do you think it makes sense?
Jerry Daykin 4:07
Yeah, it does make sense, and it's definitely a bit of a trend isn't there? The sort of the multi scene, multi family in the nicest possible way. Tick-boxing adverts, even though they're quite well-meaning. Perhaps we've seen a lot of them. I was glad how they treated it because you could imagine perhaps a less confident advertiser would have thought, "Would I need to... I need to show people this. I need to recreate these scenes. I need dramatizations and things." All of which I think would have been too much and probably quite triggering as well.
Emma Roffey 4:31
Now I hadn't thought of the angle, actually. It's good that you mentioned that. Hadn't thought about that, but I do know what you're saying. I just thought that, you know, reflect on that in that short space of time, really, when you think of it... That was so powerful and so smart. But I keep going back to this because it's real. Yeah. Now there's nothing better than... Sometimes, bit tangential. Sometimes I'm watching a movie that says it was based on a true story... And I'm like, "Really?" I think if I was a film producer, I'd just go to Wikipedia... Put a couple of names in, because you've got a fantastic movie script there because the best movies are the real... I could find other true stories because you just can't beat the true story. And I think that's what they, that's what they've tapped into here.
Julia Linehan 5:18
This is really simple but all of us have experienced, sadly in some way or another or most people have that that need to call the emergency services. And I think it's, it resonates with anybody. You can't help but and also plucks at that emotion of thinking if this happens.
Jerry Daykin 5:33
Do people really buy it? Because I've had never watched by five or six years. I made a call on it once and I was like, "Well, that wasn't a great experience. Let's never use that again." It is an easy thing to kind of have that, a normal phone call on Apple Watch, but they have showed off this. I think they've also cleverly sidestepped what can be quite a lot of technicalities like your Apple Watch... Mostly was, Apple Watch requires that your phone to be within, within Bluetooth distance of it to work. They just didn't get into it. They didn't get stuck in that. They just... You can go and look into that.
Emma Roffey 6:07
No, no classic marketing product feature, you know, benefit. If you got an Apple Watch, do you think you would think in that panic situation? "Oh, I could call..."
Tom Ollerton 6:18
To go back to your point, Jerry, it's preying on fear like, you know, someone said to me that whatever happens in the news will never happen to you because that's why it's news. It's so unusual. That's why it's interesting. On the odd situation that I might be stuck in a ravine or a sinking car in return for every single notification happening twice on my body. I think that is not a great deal.
Jerry Daykin 6:38
I think... I can't imagine many people are going to buy an Apple Watch. Yes, because just because of the ad. But I think it's a great branding ad. It builds Apple Watch as a brand, and it's the kind of hinted at before. Android watches don't have a brand. You know, don't stand for anything, whereas Apple is you know, it's part of your whole health, it's part of everything you know. It's an extreme example, but if it can do that, can it not look after me day to day? But yeah, it treads that thin line that you'd be worried they could fall easily on the other side of, yeah.
Julia Linehan 7:08
Emma and I don't have Apple Watches, and I've got to be honest, it did appeal to me as an I don't have one. So I didn't even think that whereas you guys have experienced the, they're trying to make a phone call and it not working, and therefore you're a bit more cynical watching it, whereas I'm like, "Wow, that's great." Of course, it's not real completely, is it Emma? But I'm thinking two women are going, "Oh, that'll be good."
Emma Roffey 7:30
Yeah. Similar to you, it triggered something, and it's triggered by... "Maybe I really should find out what this does."
Tom Ollerton 7:39
Wow, let's go. This really works, doesn't it? This is quite impressive. I think the other thing I realize about it, there's that, I don't know how you describe it. Jerry, you've already seen it where it's like a black and white shot of like Central London, and she's got the words over the top saying, "You'll never achieve your dreams unless you believe in your dreams." And you're like, "Oh yeah, maybe I should believe in my dreams." And it totally, it totally lifted that style from TikTok of just having the spoken word with the right, you know... It's like incredibly efficient, but also incredibly cheap. Once they got those audio recordings, that was probably a days editing really. Choose a track, you know, versus like the hyper expensive, you know, really premium ads that they do. And that's it's genius to me.
Julia Linehan 8:19
That's very clever. I got a question that, you know, we mentioned that actually, there are a lot of fundamentals like that mobile phone should be two meters away, etc. You remember radio ads used to have that very fast talking thing which are there the... You know, saying what it couldn't do. That doesn't exist... You should probably say they should be, maybe is in the tiny small print or maybe my eyesight didn't see it, but it probably should say the things it doesn't do...
Jerry Daykin 8:44
It's interesting because if they'd done a tech, an actual tech demonstration, I think it would have done. You often see a lot of adverts that say, you know, actual sequined shorts and then things like that. I guess they just didn't get into that detail. So maybe he doesn't need that disclaimer. And I would clarify for Apple that my phone did work. I made a call on it. I was just like, "Well, this is harder than this."
Emma Roffey 9:05
But isn't that, isn't that the beauty of the ad? Then you've got that intrigue to find out more. Do I believe this? Don't I? What else does it does? So I said very, very clever without the features and benefits are very subtle, but powerful sales technique.
Tom Ollerton 9:21
So we unfortunately the end of this contentious episode, I am going to get you to vote, give it marks out of five. So one, two, three... Two fours and a five. Well, that is a strong contender for the ad of the year.
Four and a half.
Brilliant. Guys, thank you so much. We'll see you next week.
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