Activist Tips from Apple's Launch
What activists can learn from Apple’s launch video
The Apple video ‘Mother Nature needs a status report’ has generated the predictable level of buzz. Climate change activists are weighing in about whether it’s #greenwashing or Apple should be commended for what they are doing. I’d like to view the video through a different lens, a marketing lens. Specifically, what can activists learn about marketing and how can they apply it to their work, because Apple is one of the best in the business at using marketing to engage emotions to change attitudes and behaviors.
Engage emotions
Apple broke one of the first rules of engagement right off the bat, the video is 5 minutes and 25 seconds. It’s essentially a mini film, not an advertisement, and it captures your emotions with a simmering tension from the first chords through to the final exhale. Stories work. Telling people the world is ending and they have to care is not engaging emotions, it’s talking at people, potentially even shutting down their emotions and adding resistance to change. Telling a story keeps attention long enough for you to get your point across. Study the best campaigns, the best movies, the best art - watch the building to a crescendo, the tension, the moments of impact, the use of music and setting. Pull people in, even in short conversations.
Call out #DistractionMarketing
Do the research in advance. Ask the hard questions. Don’t get distracted by the usual corporate-speak and Distraction Marketing. Stay on message. Mother Nature isn’t having any of it, she sets the agenda immediately - this is what has been promised, what have you done? She calls out the #greenwashing that has been done before allowing a response. The Henry David Thoreau quote to show you care about the environment? “I think our 10 o’clock said the same thing…they all do” and “this is my third corporate responsibility gig today”.
She has an agenda, including all the ways industry impacts the environment, and refuses to let the company ignore any of her agenda items. She blows past the usual corporate platitudes and demands “Materials. Status.” She demands details about implementation, “let me guess, 50 years from now when someone else is left holding the bag?”
Educate the public - give them the WHY
Apple touts their reforesting and planting efforts and Mother Nature asks ‘why?’, to which Apple explains, “our aim is to permanently remove carbon from the atmosphere”. They move beyond the usual ‘plant a tree help the environment’ plea and explain the direct impact, the WHY. More than that, Apple takes the time to talk through all the different ways corporations impacted the environment, they educate the public that it’s not just carbon neutral or clean energy, it’s packaging, transportation, water usage, and more. They did a better job of explaining the full impact than most environmentalists manage.
Data tells a story
Numbers are shown around, like reducing water usage by 63 billion gallons. Sounds impressive, and it is, but how impressive? I’d also like a percentage impact next time. As economist Ronald Coase said, “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess.” Activists should push for both the numbers and the percentage impact. A $100m donation sounds like a lot, until you realize it is 0.059% of net worth and only 0.018% of what it will take to rebuild Maui. It’s the percentage equivalent of a $718 donation for an American with the median net worth.
Go for the close
Activists need to know specifically what outcome they want to achieve, have hard number targets, deadlines, and methods of measuring success. ‘Save the planet’ is not a measurable outcome. ‘Reduce emissions in the U.S. by X%, which will have Y impact on the global target’ is a measurable outcome. Warm fuzzies are nice, contracts are even better. Apple committed to a timeline and a target. Understand the data, set targets, and agree on how targets are measured, in great detail.
Commitment from the top
Culture comes from the top. If you don’t have agreement from the leaders, you don’t have a real agreement. Apple spent exactly 14 seconds of a 5 minute 25 second video (4%) touting their new product, and then put it in the context of ‘this is the first, we are committing to every product reaching this level of spec by 2030’. They didn’t ‘sell’, they marketed an idea, that products can have a net zero climate impact. Crucially, it wasn’t Octavia Spencer or one of the people sitting around the table that committed to 2030 goals, it was Tim Cook, CEO.
Don’t be afraid of humor
The parting comment? “Don’t disappoint your mother!” Well, I think most of us agree that’s a driving force for most of us, and a good reminder, we are all accountable to Mother Nature.
Have a big vision
By depicting Mother Nature as the ultimate arbiter of our actions (as opposed to governments, corporations or even the public) Apple sends a clear message that they are both respectful and a bit afraid of the power of Mother Nature. They send a message to the public that they understand the implications of not changing and that we all need to be worried.
Identify those who lead by example and then apply peer pressure
Octavia Spencer knocks it out of the park as Mother Nature, she’s not happy and she’s not hiding it. May her peers emulate her decision to accept jobs that talk about social change. My hat off to Tim Cook, who is not an actor by any stretch, but acted like a true leader, made specific measurable commitments, and endured a stare down with Mother Nature, held to a degree of silence on film which is unusual and even made me squirm a bit. That scene alone convinced me that he understands the magnitude of what is at stake and is committed to doing the work.
Apple is currently the most profitable company in the U.S. and one of the largest companies in the world. They just set the bar high on addressing climate change because they effectively marketed what it takes and why it’s important. Peer pressure is a powerful motivator, corporations will be scrambling to meet Apple’s example. Not all, but activists should be watching who is not upping their game and make them a target for shareholder action, name and shame, and digging through the money trail to find out who is ultimately resisting change.
All in all, an excellent example of responsible marketing backed up by real action.
Call me hopeful.
Here’s the video, well worth a watch.