At its core, the “Shot on iPhone” campaign is about demonstrating the capabilities of its camera in an unquestionable, pure and evidential way. No advertising artifice. Just a pure showcase of what the device in your pocket is capable of capturing.

Every year, we launch a film during Chinese New Year, establishing a longterm platform that drives relevance for Apple at a moment of high cultural importance.

The campaign drives preference over rivals in China — the world’s largest, most competitive smartphone market — where camera superiority is critical to consideration.

By 2023, Apple faced big challenges. Amid mounting nationalism, local competitors were in resurgence. Meanwhile, economic downturn forced consumers to wait longer before upgrading.

We needed a fresh way to win attention and consideration from Gen-Z, our primary target audience during this key cultural moment.

Objectives:

1. Drive consideration for iPhone

2. Build Apple brand affinity and cultural resonance

The creative breakthrough came when we brought youths’ social behavior to life through the metaphor of shape-shifting. Similar to how they hide behind online anonymity and personas, our protagonist gains the power to shape-shift into anyone she desires.

Though her powers are magic, we wanted to keep the story rooted to the realities of youth insecurity.

Every shape-shifting moment is always trigged by real pain points — bullying, failure, low self-esteem. These true-to-life moments across the film are the emotional hooks to resonate with youths.

iPhone was an essential part of bringing our film to life. All eighteen shape-shifting scenes were shot complete on iPhone with practical effects only — demonstrating iPhone’s camera superiority.

In the creative process, “Little Garlic” evolved to more than just an entertaining film. Its a statement from Apple, and an inspirational story to resonate with a generation locked in a social-media-fueled insecurity and identity crisis.

The impact of social media and influencer activity on our insecurities is no secret.

But China’s online culture is on another level.

China is home to over 10 million influencers with more than 100 thousand followers, more than any other country. Generating over 38 million posts daily, their influence on a vulnerable young audience is undeniable.

This was deepening the impact on a generation suffering with low self-esteem.

70% of China’s youths feel anxiety caused from studies, work, appearances, or health. 80% of college students, roughly 9 million in 2023, say they have social anxiety. Record-high youth unemployment of 21% leaves the generation feeling insecure about themselves and their futures.

As technology was exacerbating youth insecurity, we felt that iPhone — through its powerful storytelling capabilities — could make a bold statement: you are enough as you are.

To ensure the film delivered the full impact of our message, we invited influencers from across different verticals to witness the film at the premier.

At the event, Pan Yiran, acclaimed Chinese screenwriter and the brain behind our script, elaborated on the youth insecurity issue to an influential audience. In total, more than 30 influencers with a combined following of 94 million would amplify our message. This doesn’t include the mainstream press who were also present and contributed to nationwide coverage.

The offline premier was coordinated with our online media roll-out, ensuring that we would maximize response to the campaign in the first few days.

Massive reach: 498 million views – (equivalent to one-third of China’s population watching the film).

Engaged viewership: Average watch time of 10m 21s, over 65 million hours watch time across all assets

Conversion: 228M clicks to apple.com, 1.8x times higher than previous year.

Earned buzz: Social buzz hit 13x times the volume from previous year.

Engagement: Most shared digital Red Packet, generating 650K earned views.

Lifted brand perception:

79% young Chinese people agree “Apple respects Chinese culture” (+19% YOY)

75% among young Chinese people agree “Apple is emotionally relevant to me” (+11% YOY)

67% of young people agree the film motivated them to “stay true to myself”

Growing product preference:

82% exposed audience agreed “I want an iPhone for its high-quality camera” (+16 lift vs unexposed)

Among young Chinese, 70% agree iPhone camera captures professional-grade film (+22% YOY), 77% agree iPhone has a better camera than others (+11% YOY)