In the face of a slowing smartphone market, Apple has raised its spending on iPhone advertising by a factor of five, a MediaRadar study claims.

The iPhone advertising call

To the chagrin of so many publishers, Apple has traditionally seemed reticent to put too much cash into marketing its products through advertising – even though the ads it does make regularly take home international prizes for the quality of their work.

Things seem to have changed a little this year.

Apple is apparently spending five times as much promoting its iPhone X range than it did pushing the iPhone 8/8 Plus last year.

“The iPhone X series has been given 12 unique TV spots, while iPhone 8’s had three,” the study claims.

There’s also a lot of money being spent by carriers this time around. AT&T spent over $85mm on iPhone X TV ads, making it the largest promoter of the iPhone X, XS, XS Max, and XR, apparently.

That’s no great surprise, of course.

Apple’s move to introduce X-series iPhones ushered in some significant changes, higher prices, Face ID and the loss of a Home button that demanded customers adopt a new UI to name but four.

https://youtu.be/3dJCroCMBPM

More phones than ever

“This year, Apple is spending well beyond what they spent on the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus to promote the X, XS, XS Max, and XR,” said Todd Krizelman, CEO & Co-Founder, MediaRadar.

For the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, Apple produced three unique TV spots. For the X, XS, XS Max, and XR, it has produced 12 so far, with more expected, as the XR was just recently released.

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“The difference in TV investment might be caused by the differentiation in this line. Apple has had to promote four different devices, overall. And even though the iPhone X was discontinued in September, it still made up a considerable chunk of their X-line spend over the last year.”

All the same, it will be interesting to see how some of Apple’s heavily-hyped competitors will react now the company they so frequently accuse of being boosted by marketing begins to ramp up the limited amount of marketing it has historically engaged in.

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