When 18 year old English student Nick Haley created a commercial for the iPhone using video clips taken from Apple’s website set to a song titled “Music Is My Hot Hot Sex” by a Brazilian band CSS, he didn’t know he had struck user generated content gold. Marketing executives at Apple saw the commercial on YouTube and, in the typically Apple ‘Think Different’ way, asked their agency TBWA/Chiat/Day to invite Nick to work with them on a broadcast-ready version of his spot. The commercial is now ready for worldwide release and Nick is a mini-celebrity (New York Times via Epicenter).
Apple and TBWA, of course, are milking the maximum possible PR value of the episode with Lee Clow, chairman and chief creative officer at TBWA Worldwide, making Steve Jobsesque statements like:
People’s relationship with a brand is becoming a dialogue, not a monologue.