We’re in the midst of a small business renaissance — in 2021 alone, a record 5.4M small businesses were started in the United States. And Apple at Work is here to power them all. The goal was to speak to this surge of creativity and innovation as small business owners take a step into something new. The Apple at Work platform of products, software and services — now with Apple Business Essentials, an all-in-one device management service — gives businesses of any size the freedom to work and collaborate more flexibly than ever before. Because when insanely great people get the insanely great tools they need, magic happens.

We met them over pizza. We followed them into Work from Home. And we knew they had a horrible boss to deal with. So when the Great Resignation began, our next move was obvious: it was time to come back to the Underdogs. “Escape from the Office”, the third installment in the series, catches the team using a suite of Apple products, software, and services to finally break free from their boss and start a business of their own. It can take a thousand No’s to get to your first Yes — but when you stick together, and your devices work together, there’s nothing you can’t do.

Two years into COVID and work-from-home, people are demanding more agency over how they work and what they do - creating a fierce, unprecedented moment for entrepreneurship and small business. In 2021 alone, 47.4M people quit their jobs in the US — and at the same time, 5.4M small businesses were started. We wanted to stoke the dreams of these new small business owners by showing how Apple products could help bring their big ideas to life.

We know what you’re thinking. We thought it, too. Who makes a 9-minute ad in 2022? Well, when you’re building a brand platform that speaks to the entirety of how we work, it’s exactly what you do.

The long-form film ran on YouTube and Apple.com (http://apple.com/). We also created a suite of 15-second shorts, display, and search ads for YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Reddit to reach the rabid following we’ve built in the business community and beyond. Not only we triple the average view length as compared to the previous film — but that previous film notched another million+ views, as new fans went back to experience the Underdogs trilogy in full.

The film went live on YouTube and Apple.com (http://apple.com/) on March 10, 2022. Paid media support launched at the same time and ends on April 25, 2022.

The Underdogs once again have struck a cultural chord, this time with small businesses. It garnered over 30M views during the first month with an eye-popping average view time of over three minutes per watch, proving that viewers were highly engaged with the story. Small business owners on Twitter and Reddit expressed how “the underdogs now represent us so well” and how “it feels so close to home.”

The campaign also increased our website traffic by 353% showing that our audience were intrigued to see more. Plus, our sales leads during the first month increased by 212%. This campaign not only successfully made small business owners aware of our product offerings, it also convinced them to consider Apple as they build out their business.