In the Loop – Apple – #ShotOniPhone

A campaign that turned into a phenomenon. 

Apple is arguably one of the biggest companies in the world. As of 1 April 2022, Apple is the world’s most valuable company by market cap, according to research. On Monday 3 January 2022, it became the first company to hit a $3trn stock market value. In other words, they have no excuse to be under delivering on their campaigns. Good job #ShotOniPhone definitely delivered. 

The Vision for the Campaign

Firstly, this campaign started as a challenge for iPhone users to showcase their most epic photography. What began as an entirely UGC (user-generated content) campaign, turned into a global sensation. 

Secondly, the idea behind the campaign was to generate all visual assets of the campaign through users of iPhones. A group of judges then choose their favourite ones to be shown globally on billboards, Apple stores and social media. 

To date, there have been 25,957,088 posts populated with the hashtag #ShotOniPhone. Not to mention that’s on Instagram alone. 

Dating back to 2015 when the campaign began – 6 months after the release of their iPhone 6 – Apple’s Vice President said “Shot on iPhone” was “a ridiculously simple idea. Based on behaviour, we were seeing with people posting their photos and hashtagging them in different ways.” It is safe to say this campaign is timeless. 

Apple’s 2022 theme

Without a doubt, this campaign has shown success year on year. However, it would be nothing without the customers of Apple and the creativity captured by them. Apple’s latest #ShotOniPhone campaign was to promote their new iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max and demonstrate the new macro feature.  

Apple said: “The beauty of macro photography is its ability to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.” 

Who was involved in #ShotOniPhone? 

Thousands of content creators and photographers submitted their photography. The judges then deliberated and announced the winners via Instagram. The winners got published on Apple’s Instagram every year along with their artwork.  

Firstly, this is a money can’t buy opportunity for aspiring artists, creators and photographers. Secondly, Apple is receiving an infinite amounts of free marketing material. Everyone’s a winner here.  

2022’s campaign added another tailored hashtag for the new iPhone feature #iPhoneMacroChallenge which has seen 16,908 post mentions. 

Of course, with Apple being one of the biggest tech monsters in the world, they aren’t going to solely rely on UGC to promote their latest releases. This is where they bring in the big guns.  

The Celebs

Apple’s marketing team certainly won’t be short of a large budget to play around with. In other words, involving the likes of A-list celebs is going to be pretty achievable. Not forgetting they’re Apple… who would pass up that opportunity regardless! 

Lady Gaga and Selena Gomez instantly took the campaign to the next level year on year by really showing what iPhone cameras can do. The 2020 campaign saw Lady Gaga make her return to the music scene with her first solo single since 2017.  

Gaga teased her new song with a video clip hashtagging #ShotOniPhone. If it’s good enough for Gaga, it’s good enough for us, right? Likewise, Selena’s ‘Lose You to Love Me’ music video was entirely shot on iPhone 11 in 2019. 

Watch the short behind-the-scenes video below:

Overall, the campaign has continued to catch the attention of millions around the world every year without fail. For as long as iPhones are popular, we see no signs of this campaign slowing down and we can’t wait to see what the tech brand will surprise us with next.

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