Roger Fingas
Apple on Wednesday won the "Brand Experience and Activation" Grand Prix at Cannes Lions, a largely ad- and marketing-themed festival, for the "Today at Apple" program at its retail stores.
At an awards ceremony, Apple was said to have "reinvented" the in-store experience. A video montage showed a mix of news reports and promotional imagery, including a CBS interview with Apple retail head Angela Ahrendts.
.@Apple_Cupertino wins the Brand Experience & Activation Grand Prix for their work'TODAY AT APPLE'
— Cannes Lions (@Cannes_Lions) June 20, 2018
Congratulations! @APPLE #CannesLions pic.twitter.com/sxIlEIS7BH
Ahrendts herself appeared at Cannes Lions earlier in the day, interviewed by Apple's own VP of marketing communications, Tor Myhren.
"Today at Apple" was launched in May 2017. While marketed as something new, effectively it was a rebranding and expansion of workshops and other events the company was already holding.
Common options include things like Photo and Sketch Walks, basic Swift coding sessions, and the Kids Hour, which alternates between topics. Some stores offer Photo and Music Labs, and more advanced customers can attend "Pro Series" events for subjects like Final Cut Pro.
Only high-traffic Apple stores will typically play host to Perspectives and Performances, in which musicians and other artists will put on a show and/or talk about their work.
Ahrendts has made "Today at Apple" a tentpole of the company's retail chain, even attempting to rebrand stores as "town squares" with greater social relevance. In practice, though, the company hasn't made much use of the term.
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1 Comment
I always have a little chuckle when I think of the pundits trashing Apple when Apple decided to open its own stores. The gloom and doom was everywhere. What was Apple thinking when they decided to open these doomed to fail retail stores? It was all over for Apple. I also remember my experiences in big box electronics stores of the day, like Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, even Sears. Apple products were relegated to a dark corner in the back of those stores while the Windows product were front and center. The worst part was the attitude and anti-Apple bias of the sales associates in those stores. I thought then as I know now that Apple should open its own stores and tell the big box stores to pound salt. And guess what, except for Best Buy they’re all GONE, kaput, bankrupt, distant memories. There were a very few local, small, independent shops that sold and serviced Apple products and it was too bad when they too went away. Some were excellent and very customer oriented. Today, at least, Best Buy is semi-serious about representing Apple properly and the sales floor clerks shy away from trashing Apple openly for the most part. I still don’t think it’s worthwhile for Apple to allow their products in places like Fry’s or MicroCenters. These stores are generally populated by hobbyists and tinkerers and nerds who wouldn’t touch an Apple product with a ten foot pole.