An 18 year old British student has seen the mock iPod touch advert he made in his bedroom get aired on US TV and even shown live at the World Series.
Apple fan Nick Haley made the advert in his spare time and uploaded the 30 second spot to YouTube. Naturally he couldn’t believe his ears when an Apple representative called to buy the rights to the ad (which presumably they already owned?) and invited Nick to Los Angeles to help remake the video.
I first came across this story at Ad Goodness where the mainly ad-professional community have been stroking their goatees and getting hot under their roll-neck collars, complaining that the ad lacks any creative concept or originality.
They may well be right but I think it’s a great ad. As brand developer Prescott Perez-Fox says, this ad is significant because it is one of the first examples of amateur consumer-generated content being implemented and used by mainstream professionals.
On his personal blog, risk-management consultant Indyman reflects on how refreshing it is to see Apple turn a blind eye to any copyright infringement issues and embrace the user-generated content movement.
I’ve written in the past at how Apple are the Jedi masters of marketing and PR. Here they’ve managed to produce a great ad (at a fraction of the cost of using a creative agency) and attach it to a great story (the guy next door striking it lucky). The result is a media- and blogosphere-friendly story that is well and truly going viral (almost 500,000 YouTube views, and counting).
Who needs a creative concept?
I truly love this ad, and I’m chuffed to bits for lucky Nick. What do you think?
Congratulations to Nick, and kudos to Apple. It’s a great ad. I Like how Apple has been faithful to Nick’s original too. This really is an inspiration for everyone, and a truly brilliant marketing “ploy” from Apple. I think we’re going to see a flood of home-created Apple ad’s–if I were Apple, I’d be very happy with myself.
Thanks for bringing this one to my attention, Aaron. I’ve only just stepped out of my broom cupboard. Where would I be without millenzo.com!
Brilliant! Nick did a great job, and rock on Apple for keeping close to his original idea. I must say I liked the editing on Nick’s version better, but great job all around!!!
Johno - Cheers mate for the very kind words. I suspect you’d get by without miLienzo.com, but without the pleasure that watching 6-year old scratch DJ’s brings Colin - Thanks for stopping by. It’s interesting that you prefer the editing on the original version. Personally I think the remade version is just that little bit tighter, but it’s close. Technically Nicks version is very good!
Amy - I was merely musing. Basically it’s advertising an Apple product, it’s featuring an Apple trademark. So whilst the creative work is all Nick’s, the intellectual property rights is all Apple’s. It’s murky, but strictly speaking they could have sued Nick (or more likely just told him to take the video off YouTube), so it’s kind of ironic (and cool) that they’ve paid him.
haha! That’s great! I really like that ad and the music is fun and totally appropriate. I agree with your above comment, Aaron, it’s neat that Apple actually decided to bring Nick on board for that. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt them at all and it makes people like us think more highly of them!
Wow that has to be a dream job - what a thing to put on the CV of an 18 year old creative. Just shows that the little guy can get things noticed on the internet too.
Tara - Indeed, the chap must be chuffed to bits. Like you say it demonstrates that plugging youself on Youtube, blogs etc can really pay off sometimes.
johno
31 October 2007, 8:52 am