Think different. Please.
Think different.
Besides being a brilliant campaign, it launched Apple's string of success that lasts until today. Wouldn't it be great to learn about the process that gave birth to such a classic campaign? That's exactly what we get in this interview with Ken Segall, the creator of the f"think different" campaign. We learn of Steve Job's request to TBWA\Chiat\Day "to craft a campaign that reminded the world what Apple was about, what the company meant." At the time, Jobs often talked about how successful Apple had been in the past. “What are we going to do to recapture the spirit of that company?” he asked. “We’ve got some great products coming but we need to communicate to the world what the company stands for.” The TBWA\Chiat\Day team quickly came to the conclusion that Apple isn’t like other companies. It doesn’t follow the rules. It thinks different. The slogan, Think Different, was dreamed up by an art director, Craig Tanimoto, Segall says.“We had a lot of ideas in that area; it was one of those things up on the wall. Everyone says, ‘Huh, that’s pretty good.’ Like a lot of things, we were not really sold on it straight away, but it grew on everyone.” With the concept in focus, it was now just a matter of developing the campaign that could best deliver it. We went down many roads – with and without a human presence, with and without mice (yes, mice). The breakthrough came when we stepped back and realized that the spark driving Apple existed long before Apple. In fact, it existed long before electricity. The ability to think creatively is one of the great catalysts of civilization. So the logic seemed natural: why not show what kind of company Apple is by celebrating the people Apple admires? Let’s acknowledge the most remarkable people – past and present – who “change things” and “push the human race forward.” We also hear how the iMac name was created: Jobs said the new computer was a Mac, so the name had to reference the Macintosh brand. The name had to make it clear the machine was designed for the internet. It also had to be applicable to several other upcoming products. And it had to be quick: the packaging needed to be ready in a week.
Segall says he came back with five names. Four were ringers, sacrificial lambs for the name he loved — iMac. “It referenced the Mac, and the “i” meant internet,” Segall says. “But it also meant individual, imaginative and all the other things it came to stand for.” It “i” prefix could also be applied to whatever other internet products Apple was working on. Jobs rejected them all, including iMac. I love when I have the chance to look into brilliant minds and classic campaigns. It helps to bring to ground the godlike idea of having good ideas and it also proves how hard it is to actually have and sell an idea. That's why you have to think diff... well, you know what I mean.
