Follow the words

How Apple forces media to play by its rules

Immediately after the presentation of the new iPhones, Forbes noticed that several publications published articles with identical headlines. TJournal editor-in-chief Nikita Likhachev discusses how Apple conveys its ideology to the final audience in the form in which they sounded at the presentation.

Carmine Gallo from Forbes believes that Apple specifically prepared the phrase “the most forward-thinking iPhone yet” , ideal for Twitter (and therefore for the headline), and during a presentation with pressure repeats it several times. Apple chief marketer Phil Schiller said it for the first time half an hour after the start of the presentation, then repeated it with a minor change, the head of the company, Tim Cook, ended the presentation using the words “forward-thinking,” and the headline of the final press release reads: “iPhone 5s - The Most Forward-Thinking Smartphone in the World.”

Forbes, of course, was not the first. Others have noticed before that Apple, like no other, knows how to convey to the audience the precise formulation of the key features of its products. Usually, the classic story with the iPod player is given as an example: In 2001, Steve Jobs said from the stage the phrase about “1000 songs in your pocket,” and it was replicated by all the media.

There is no special oratorical skill or particularly convincing performances here. The secret lies in the organization and script of Apple events.

For its big announcements, the company rents small spaces rather than giant stadiums. Select members of the press are invited to the several hundred-person room. These journalists have the great honor of seeing live the most interesting leaders of the leading technology company in the world. In addition, they also have great luck - they get their hands on an exclusive that everyone wants. Journalists really want to get into the Apple pool, and those who get in really don’t want to be excluded from it.

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For an extremely sought-after exclusive, journalists are ready to kiss the sand under Apple’s feet, but this is not required.

It turns out to be a symbiotic relationship. Journalists serve Apple by publishing the kind of stories the company wants to see. In turn, Apple gives them content that attracts a huge number of readers to their publications. Of course, Apple does not directly indicate what headlines should be set and in what light the release of its products should be covered: firstly, this contradicts the freedom-loving spirit of the company, and secondly, this is illegal blackmail. In the end, reputable Western publications would never agree to such a deal out of principle and in order to preserve their reputation.

How then can we explain the accuracy of the headers? There is an opinion that at Apple they are so accurate and verified that they do not need editing. This may be true, but only partially; In my opinion, the decisive factor is the competition between publications during the presentation.

Let's say there are three hundred journalists sitting in the hall, and all they are allowed to do is take photographs and write text. Since photographs cannot differ significantly from each other (everyone is shown the same thing), the main competitive advantages are the speed and quality of text presentation.

Many journalists from one publication will not get into the hall: at best, two editors and one photojournalist are accredited. One of the editors should try to follow the speech of the speakers as closely as possible. Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, Eddie Cue, Phil Schiller - it was their words that journalists came for, so you can’t miss a single important phrase. The second editor can help monitor the presentation of the first one, add impressions about the course of the presentation, help process photographs and correct errors. One way or another, the main emphasis is on quotes: they can be reprinted by other media and they have a lot of weight, but only readers of a particular publication need their own opinion and impressions of the presentation, and even then not always.

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The most important thing is quotes, so the speech of Apple leaders has to be outlined in as much detail as possible.

Thus, editors give preference to the accuracy of quotes and the speed of appearance of the text, variety and impressions go to another level, and they do analytics only after the presentation. The main thing is not to miss an important phrase and not to allow others to write it faster than you, otherwise less fortunate media and readers who did not make it to the presentation will refer to you and the gold-bearing traffic will be missed.

Apple itself adds fuel to the fire: it is no coincidence that important parts of the presentation are stuffed with a large number of new facts. Such a volume of information cannot be digested in seconds, so editors have to quote the speech of the company’s top management verbatim. There is nothing wrong with this for the publication: it refers to authoritative sources and no one will blame it if the words turn out to be inaccurate or not entirely truthful.

All this leads to the fact that in all publications important announcements are described in the same words - prepared in advance and verified from a marketing point of view. Apple specially prepares a killer phrase like “most forward-thinking iPhone”, which stands out against the general background of less original formulations and therefore is easily taken apart for quotes. These words reprint all the others.

Apple doesn't need to buy custom articles or threaten exclusion from the pool for misreporting new product announcements. Having built such a system of working with media, the company provides free advertising to the largest and most famous media in the world.

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