Apple wanted to make a holiday film that felt like a children’s book brought to life through the lens of iPhone 13 Pro. This was a story for the family, shot by an iconic Hollywood family, father and son directors Jason and Ivan Reitman, who took advantage of all the phones new features.

We created a story about an unbreakable bond of friendship between our main character and her snowman “Simon”, as she does all she can to keep him from melting from one holiday to the next.

We wanted the perfect balance of emotion and comedy, showing the lengths our hero would go to to save her friend. We also wanted to nod to the fact that this was a year when a lot of us were reconnecting with family in person. Our end line subtly encapsulates that feeling with a sense of celebration and optimism the world needed.

Apple made this year’s holiday season cinematic through an emotive and stirring film shot entirely on the new iPhone 13 Pro. To demonstrate the filmmaking prowess of iPhone, Apple called on Oscar-nominated directors, and father and son team, Jason and Ivan Reitman, to highlight some of the newest features on iPhone 13 Pro in a charming holiday card to the world.

The story follows a girl who desperately tries to preserve the magic of the holidays all year round. It shows an unbreakable bond of friendship between her and her snowman as she does all she can to keep him from melting from one holiday season to the next.

This past holiday season, Apple set out to send a holiday card to the world. We aimed to separate ourselves from the pack by delivering an authentic slice of wintery magic and joy, all shot through the lens of the world’s favorite smartphone camera: iPhone 13 Pro. Saving Simon pulled at the heartstrings of viewers and showcased our community’s most-talked about new features on iPhone 13 Pro. Our :60 and 3 minute films inspired through long-form, narrative storytelling while short-form, feature-specific videos featuring scenes from the film drove awareness of new features. On YouTube, we tapped into a platform insight and crafted a bespoke BTS film where viewers could take a peek behind the curtain and hear directly from Jason and Ivan Reitman. On Instagram we shared cut-downs to our community of 27M, along with an original experience teaching viewers how to capture the holidays.

Our film “Saving Simon” ran globally in 25 markets, in premium placements across key sports, entertainment and holiday programming from November 22nd through Christmas. A :60 version of the commercial ran on broadcast and online TV, with a longer form film running on YouTube Skippable, YouTube Organic, and Hulu. Feature specific :15 and :06 shorts ran on digital and social. A behind the scenes look at the making of “Saving Simon” ran alongside the long-form film on YouTube, as well as on the @apple Instagram handle. The film also premiered at the newly opened Grove Apple Store where Valarie June performed the films song "You and I".

Saving Simon ran in premium placements across key sports, entertainment and holiday programming, garnering 1B linear views. A :60 version of the commercial ran on broadcast and online TV, with a longer form film running on YouTube and Hulu, garnering 934M views globally and +198% higher completion rates vs. benchmark. Feature-specific :15 and :06 shorts ran on digital and social, driving over 4B views globally. A behind the scenes look at the making of “Saving Simon” ran alongside the long-form film on YouTube, as well as on the @apple Instagram handle.