iPhone: Most successful campaign in advertising history?

 
Various marketing experts talk about Apple's iPhone campaign only in superlatives. For example, Al Ries, marketing expert and chairman of the brand consultancy Ries & Ries in Atlanta, who, according to Cash Daily, describes it as one of the most successful advertising campaigns ever. Especially in terms of the high media presence and the relatively low cost. The combination of cell phone and multimedia device generated more coverage in the run-up to the sale than any other product, Ries continues. In addition, concrete information was only released to the public bit by bit, which further increased interest in the new miracle device.
Ville Heiskanen from Bloomberg agrees with him; he compares the impact of the Apple campaign with that of Ford for the Mustang in 1964 and with that of Microsoft for Windows 95, and he concludes that Apple has probably set new standards.
The costs also seem low compared to the broad impact achieved: Michael Gartenberg, analyst at JupiterResearch, estimates the total cost of the market launch at around 100 million dollars, less than half of what Microsoft invested in its Windows 95 campaign.
Matt Williams, Partner at Martin Agency, sums up the character of the campaign perfectly: Apple is one of those rare brands that can surround a product with an aura of mystery. Apple has also started rumors that have taken on a life of their own.
The official sales figures will show whether the product will be as successful as its campaign. Al Ries, who is so positive about the campaign, is rather pessimistic here; convergence devices have a long history of failure. Or as one blogger put it more concretely with regard to the iPhone: "An expensive cell phone with a lousy keyboard, and an expensive iPod with too little storage space.