How an Architecture Website Got Featured in the iPhone 5 Launch Video

Architecture website Dezeen was prominently featured in the iPhone 5 promotional video revealed yesterday, and today the site has posted a brief behind-the-scenes look at how the collaboration came to fruition.

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The site is featured in the video starting around the 1:16 mark, with the iPhone 5 user opening an email with a link to the website. He clicks the link, views the site, navigates to Safari's bookmarks list and then opens another page. The page is viewed during a section of the video discussing how LTE technology provides for "really fast downloads over your cellular network."

Apple contacted Dezeen earlier this year asking us to create a bespoke version of our home page and an editorial page for a possible future marketing campaign. Apple specified that both had to be free of external advertisements and social media buttons, but they did not give any details of how the pages might be used.

The pages [were] created for us by our long-term collaborators Zerofee. Besides the iPhone versions of Dezeen, we also created billboard-sized pages that may, or may not, appear in Apple Stores and outdoor advertising hoardings as part of the marketing push for the iPhone 5.

Given how secretive Apple tends to be with its marketing materials, it remains to be seen if this disclosure by Dezeen will impact Apple's marketing strategy going forward.

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Top Rated Comments

Eduardo1971 Avatar
173 months ago
Yeah, I guess they shouldn't expect to work with Apple in the future.

"Loose lips..."
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pandamonia Avatar
173 months ago
So Apple wanted a website made to look better than it normally would on the browser! Classic.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Battlefield Fan Avatar
173 months ago
Given how secretive Apple tends to be with its marketing materials, it remains to be seen if this disclosure by Dezeen will impact Apple's marketing strategy going forward.

Idiots.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
John.B Avatar
173 months ago
So Apple wanted a website made to look better than it normally would on the browser! Classic.

I wish more websites were scrubbed of cruft like social media links.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nagromme Avatar
173 months ago
This doesn’t seem like any great trade secret: they’re telling the tale AFTER the iPhone 5 and marketing materials were already released.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kalsta Avatar
173 months ago
Having a company make a special webpage for an iphone advert does not show how the iphone handles webpages on 4G or the iPhone. Its made to look better at its job than it is.

You have to be kidding. They're absolutely entitled to show best-scenario kind of situations to promote their products. That's what advertisers do! If it's an actual video of an actual webpage on an actual iPhone, they've done nothing wrong here.

There are grey areas for sure, like when McDonalds spends hours meticulously recreating a burger for a photo shoot, then touches it up, etc. I think that's stepping pretty close to the line of deception… but to their credit, they finally released a video (//www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSd0keSj2W8) which is very open about this process.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)