When invitation is on iPod

Apple Middle East, represented by Arab Business Machine, has invited five new advertising agencies to pitch for Apple's ATL, BTL and media accounts.

In Apple's characteristic innovative approach, the agencies – Tonic, Memac Ogilvy, Lowe Mena, Euro RSCG and BPG (Bates Pan Gulf) – in addition to their current agency, Intermarkets, were sent an iPod containing the invite and a video brief.

Joe Sfeir, Marketing Manager, Arab Business Machines, said: "iPod is the most popular Apple product in the UAE. By sending the invitation and pitch brief on an iPod, we want the agencies to know that we are a young, cool and dynamic company looking for a partner with similar attributes that can lead us on a strategic level with great creativity."

Khaled Gadallah, executive creative director, Tonic Communications, said: "The world of creative advertising relies totally on Apple products as tools to generate and execute its best ideas. Apple's innovative products find their greatest usage in the advertising world. It is a dream for any agency to work for such as creative company. "Sending the brief on an iPod highlights the relevance of the product, and demonstrates a creative way of using it."

Apple is well known for its creative and artistic ads. A half-hour iPhone instructional video on the company's website about the iPhone 3G, detailing each new feature and function, was so effective at building interaction and engagement with customers and prospective buyers, that it was actually regarded as an advert.

Charles Golvin, principal analyst at Forrester Research, said: "Even though it is educational and you are giving people an experience, it is really sort of a deep immersion into Apple's brand and approach and there's huge value in that."

It is not often that brand communications get more than a minute of undivided attention of the customers, Golvin added.

Apple's "Think Different" ad campaign, which started in 1997, presented a new slogan and aesthetic for its advertisements, including montages of artists and creative professionals using the Mac. The campaign was believed to be a huge contributor to Apple's success.