TRANSCRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.830
Welcome to Shallow DeepDive, where we take
a deep-ish dive into the shallow world of
00:00:04.910 --> 00:00:06.876
branding, advertising and creative.
00:00:06.956 --> 00:00:07.753
I'm Joe Qualls.
00:00:07.833 --> 00:00:12.664
Today, we're covering the new Apple Music
identity, and why a brand that gave up its
00:00:12.744 --> 00:00:15.411
colour may have ended up with something
better.
00:00:15.491 --> 00:00:16.639
Here's what happened.
00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:21.549
This week, Apple Music released its first
new identity since the service launched in
00:00:21.629 --> 00:00:22.346
2015.
00:00:22.426 --> 00:00:26.788
It was made with TBWA Media Arts Lab, the
producer Fred again, and the sound
00:00:26.868 --> 00:00:31.114
designers NEST Acoustics, and Apple's line
for the whole thing is "made by
00:00:31.194 --> 00:00:35.732
" The new look starts showing up in Apple
Music's own shows and events now, and
00:00:35.812 --> 00:00:39.123
arrives on everyone's phone with the next
software update.
00:00:39.203 --> 00:00:40.877
The phrase is meant literally.
00:00:40.957 --> 00:00:45.729
The team broke music down into single
notes and played them through a
00:00:45.809 --> 00:00:48.944
small device that turns an audio signal
into vibration.
00:00:49.024 --> 00:00:51.984
The transducer sat in a shallow bath of
mineral oil.
00:00:52.064 --> 00:00:56.894
Acrylic versions of the music note and the
wordmark sat in the oil, and as the sound
00:00:56.974 --> 00:01:01.279
moved through it, the surface rippled and
the light bent around the shapes.
00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:02.798
They filmed it, in camera.
00:01:02.878 --> 00:01:07.183
That footage is the raw material for the
logo animation and the wider look.
00:01:07.263 --> 00:01:11.976
Fred again and NEST wrote a short piece of
music that drives it, which is also the
00:01:12.056 --> 00:01:13.029
brand's new sound.
00:01:13.109 --> 00:01:17.764
There's a behind-the-scenes film on
YouTube that walks through the whole
00:01:17.844 --> 00:01:20.803
and it's worth a minute and a half of
anyone's time.
00:01:20.883 --> 00:01:25.655
Around that sits a new wordmark, the Apple
symbol next to a bold, lowercase "music"
00:01:25.735 --> 00:01:28.461
set in a custom version of Apple's own
typeface.
00:01:28.541 --> 00:01:33.255
It was quietly road-tested last month on
the signage for Apple Music Hall, the new
00:01:33.335 --> 00:01:36.762
six-hundred-seat venue at Battersea Power
Station in London.
00:01:36.842 --> 00:01:41.614
It looks less like a software label and
more like the masthead of a music
00:01:41.694 --> 00:01:44.888
And the app icon, the red one, is going
black and white.
00:01:44.968 --> 00:01:46.700
That's the part people noticed.
00:01:46.780 --> 00:01:51.318
When the monochrome icon turned up in a
beta last week, the response was mostly
00:01:51.398 --> 00:01:52.115
unhappy.
00:01:52.195 --> 00:01:53.401
People missed the red.
00:01:53.481 --> 00:01:56.791
A few said they'd move to Spotify over it,
which we doubt.
00:01:56.871 --> 00:01:58.019
It's a fair reaction.
00:01:58.099 --> 00:02:02.871
Colour is usually the first thing people
recognise a brand by, and Apple Music just
00:02:02.951 --> 00:02:04.040
set its colour down.
00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:08.483
We'd make the case it was the right call,
and the reason is in the category.
00:02:08.563 --> 00:02:09.594
Spotify owns green.
00:02:09.674 --> 00:02:14.387
YouTube Music is red too, a red circle on
a phone screen a swipe away from Apple's
00:02:14.467 --> 00:02:15.183
red square.
00:02:15.263 --> 00:02:18.048
In music streaming, red was never really
Apple's.
00:02:18.128 --> 00:02:19.918
It was a colour Apple was using.
00:02:19.998 --> 00:02:23.601
Compare that with Coca-Cola, which we
covered two episodes ago.
00:02:23.681 --> 00:02:28.219
Coke kept every asset it had because every
one of them was unmistakably Coke's.
00:02:28.299 --> 00:02:32.954
Apple Music looked at its most
recognisable asset, decided it wasn't
00:02:33.034 --> 00:02:35.001
replaced it with something that is.
00:02:35.081 --> 00:02:37.573
Which brings us to the idea underneath
this.
00:02:37.653 --> 00:02:40.963
Most identities are made to represent what
a company does.
00:02:41.043 --> 00:02:44.821
A designer draws a shape that stands for
music, or speed, or care.
00:02:44.901 --> 00:02:47.394
This one is made from what the company
does.
00:02:47.474 --> 00:02:49.615
The visuals aren't a picture of sound.
00:02:49.695 --> 00:02:51.193
They're a by-product of it.
00:02:51.273 --> 00:02:55.928
That matters more than it sounds, because
a picture of something can be copied by
00:02:56.008 --> 00:02:57.682
anyone with the same software.
00:02:57.762 --> 00:03:00.897
A by-product can only be copied by doing
the same work.
00:03:00.977 --> 00:03:05.632
If a competitor wanted this look, they'd
need a composer, a transducer, a tray of
00:03:05.712 --> 00:03:06.860
oil and a few months.
00:03:06.940 --> 00:03:10.251
And even then it would look like their
music, not Apple's.
00:03:10.331 --> 00:03:15.103
There's a second asset in here that gets
less attention, and it's the sound itself.
00:03:15.183 --> 00:03:19.721
Most brands we meet have a logo, a palette
and a typeface, and no sound at all.
00:03:19.801 --> 00:03:22.819
Yet nearly everything they publish now
makes a noise.
00:03:22.899 --> 00:03:27.613
The video on the homepage, the social
clip, the podcast, the reel, the message
00:03:27.693 --> 00:03:28.409
hear on hold.
00:03:28.489 --> 00:03:30.747
Apple has now done this twice in a year.
00:03:30.827 --> 00:03:34.605
Last year Apple TV got a short sonic
signature written by Finneas.
00:03:34.685 --> 00:03:37.294
Now Apple Music has one written by Fred
again.
00:03:37.374 --> 00:03:39.750
There's some evidence this is worth doing.
00:03:39.830 --> 00:03:44.660
An Ipsos study back in 2020 found that
video ads using a brand's own sound cues
00:03:44.740 --> 00:03:49.337
far more likely
Load full transcript
to perform well than ads
without them, and also found that sound
00:03:49.417 --> 00:03:53.487
made up only a small sliver of the brand
assets companies actually use.
00:03:53.567 --> 00:03:57.755
We'd hold the exact multiple loosely, the
way we'd hold any single study.
00:03:57.835 --> 00:04:01.262
The direction we believe, because people
don't always watch.
00:04:01.342 --> 00:04:02.058
They hear.
00:04:02.138 --> 00:04:04.864
I learned that making political ads in New
York.
00:04:04.944 --> 00:04:09.775
You'd spend days on a thirty-second spot
for a city council race, every frame
00:04:09.855 --> 00:04:14.627
over, and then you'd remember that a lot
of people meet a TV ad from the next room.
00:04:14.707 --> 00:04:15.562
The kettle's on.
00:04:15.642 --> 00:04:16.614
The kids are loud.
00:04:16.694 --> 00:04:18.660
They hear it and they don't see it.
00:04:18.740 --> 00:04:22.928
The spots that worked were the ones you
could follow with your eyes shut.
00:04:23.008 --> 00:04:24.681
That never stopped being true.
00:04:24.761 --> 00:04:29.533
It just moved from the living room to the
phone in someone's pocket with the screen
00:04:29.613 --> 00:04:30.330
off.
00:04:30.410 --> 00:04:32.610
Now the caution, because there are two.
00:04:32.690 --> 00:04:36.176
The first is that a behind-the-scenes film
is also marketing.
00:04:36.256 --> 00:04:40.852
Showing the process has become a genre of
its own, and Apple is very good at it.
00:04:40.932 --> 00:04:45.763
Last year the Apple TV identity was shot
with real glass and coloured light, and
00:04:45.843 --> 00:04:48.335
agency said craft should be felt, not
faked.
00:04:48.415 --> 00:04:53.128
At a time when anyone can generate a slick
image in seconds, "we made it for real"
00:04:53.208 --> 00:04:55.408
is a selling point, and Apple knows it.
00:04:55.488 --> 00:05:00.202
The process only earns its keep if the
result holds up without the story
00:05:00.282 --> 00:05:04.644
On a phone, at the size of a fingernail,
nobody is watching the documentary.
00:05:04.724 --> 00:05:06.223
They're looking at an icon.
00:05:06.303 --> 00:05:08.503
The second caution is about the colour.
00:05:08.583 --> 00:05:13.238
Dropping a recognisable asset is a real
cost, and Apple can afford it because the
00:05:13.318 --> 00:05:16.687
logo next to the word "music" does most of
the recognising.
00:05:16.767 --> 00:05:21.071
A smaller brand that drops its colour
doesn't have a fruit to fall back on.
00:05:21.151 --> 00:05:25.982
So if you're going to give something up,
be sure what you're putting in its place
00:05:26.062 --> 00:05:29.547
more yours than what you're losing, not
just newer or tidier.
00:05:29.627 --> 00:05:33.055
So what does this look like for a business
that isn't Apple?
00:05:33.135 --> 00:05:35.861
Start by looking for the material only you
have.
00:05:35.941 --> 00:05:38.608
For a builder, that might be the site
drawings.
00:05:38.688 --> 00:05:40.128
For a winemaker, the soil.
00:05:40.208 --> 00:05:44.630
For an engineering firm, the survey data
nobody outside the office ever sees.
00:05:44.710 --> 00:05:49.248
An identity that grows out of that
material is harder to copy than one drawn
00:05:49.328 --> 00:05:50.044
stand for it.
00:05:50.124 --> 00:05:54.662
Then give your brand a sound before you
need one, because you're already making
00:05:54.742 --> 00:05:56.065
things that people hear.
00:05:56.145 --> 00:06:00.800
A few seconds that open your videos and
your podcast, used every time, is cheaper
00:06:00.880 --> 00:06:03.665
than a new logo and works when nobody is
looking.
00:06:03.745 --> 00:06:08.517
And before you let go of something people
recognise you by, ask whether it was ever
00:06:08.597 --> 00:06:11.790
really yours, or whether you were just the
one using it.
00:06:11.870 --> 00:06:13.778
The phrase Apple chose is "made by
00:06:13.858 --> 00:06:17.402
" The idea worth keeping is smaller and
more useful than that.
00:06:17.482 --> 00:06:20.734
The best brand assets aren't drawn to look
like the work.
00:06:20.814 --> 00:06:21.904
They come out of it.
00:06:21.984 --> 00:06:25.119
Thank you for indulging us in today's
Shallow DeepDive.
00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:27.457
We hope you'll join us for the next one.
00:06:27.537 --> 00:06:28.743
Until then, take care.