Students today spend less time with traditional media than virtually any other demographic.

MacBook Air wanted to be "university famous" and do something that stands out to students, while not feeling overtly like an ad.

Our objective was to make MacBook Air "university famous." We didn't want to just advertise to students, we wanted to become a part of their daily lives with a study tool that they would actually organically search for and want to spend time with.

We leveraged a growing YouTube search trend called "Study With Me" videos. Instead of just replicating exactly what other videos were doing, MacBook Air reinvented what a Study With Me video could be. Ours starred real university student, Emmy winner, and TikToker, Storm Reid. It also featured entertaining breaks designed to help students recharge their minds and bodies in-between study sessions. And, Students' search behavior wasn't just used as a way to target students, popular student searches also shaped the creative execution, with dozens of the things students search for being creatively (and surprisingly) integrated into the film.

Our target audience was university students: 18-25 years old.

Key markets: USA, UK, South America, China, India, Japan.

Our strategy was to intercept students' organic YouTube searches by creating a Study With Me video based on the most popular things they search for.

Main organic search term: Study With Me video

Secondary search terms: study music, lofi music, study hacks, study tips, pomodoro studying, afrobeats, ASMR, yoga stretches, roller skating videos.

The above search terms get millions of organic searches every month, and their subject matter informed the creative execution of the video.

Approach: Study With Storm was placed on YouTube several weeks before midterm exams, giving enough time for students to search for and find the video while they were in peak study season.

Study With Storm was placed on YouTube in October, 2023, several weeks before midterm exams--a time when our research showed that student searches for this type of content peaked.

YouTube was chosen as the primary placement because this is the main platform that students use to search for this type of video.

By focusing on organic search behavior, MacBook Air became part of student life for millions.

Within a month it became the #1 most viewed Study With Me video ever on YouTube...And it still maintains that #1 position.

Over 19 MILLION views of a 90 minute product shot.