Apple is reportedly taking a slow and steady approach when it comes to marketing its new TV subscription service, according to advertising insights from the New York Times.
The NYT has gathered together figures from television and online advertising to show how much Apple has been spending on promoting its new Apple TV+ originals so far, and it’s less than you might have expected, considering Apple has spent billions creating its original content.
Compared with Disney+, which has seen millions of dollars of advertising across every possible medium, Apple has spent twice as much advertising the new iPhone 11 range than it has Apple TV+, despite the service launching on November 1 with little fanfare.
Indeed, in September, Apple spent approximately $28.6 million on television ads for the iPhone 11 range.
In comparison, just $14.9 million was spent teasing Apple TV+.
Naturally, those figures increased in October as Apple drew closer to launching its new platform on November 1, but the proportions remained similar.
In October, $19.9 million was spent on advertising Apple TV+ on televisions, compared with $38.6 million for iPhone ads.
Online advertising was slightly different, with Apple spending around $3.8 million to promote Apple TV+ on social media and sites like YouTube in September.
The Cupertino firm spent $2.4 million on iPhone ads in the same month, despite releasing the iPhone 11 that month.
In October, Apple spent $2.3 million on iPhone ads and just $1.7 million on Apple TV+ ads.
According to Dan Rayburn from Frost & Sullivan, “consumers are just drowning in content right now, and all of these services are competing for our time.
“But they’re all approaching the market differently. This isn’t some race for Apple. It’s a slow roll.”
Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities spoke to the New York Times, too, and said that Apple has been unusually “aggressive.”
“This is a pivotal juncture for Apple to be successful,” he said in his interview
“They cannot trip over their shoelace. They were late to the game, they’ve underinvested in content, and they have a lot of room to make up.”
Are you watching Apple TV+? Has the company has done enough to promote its new service? Let us know your thoughts on Twitter via @AppleMagazine and check back for more.