Apple Is Promoting Its Apple TV+ Shows with Book Tie-Ins and Pop-Up Locations

Apple may have had slow start in marketing its new streaming service, but it’s making up for lost time now, with a recent surge in billboard ads, product tie-ins, and more in order to help feature its original Apple TV+ shows and raise the public’s awareness of what’s on.

Prior the launch of Apple TV+, Apple hadn’t really done much to promote the service, taking what The New York Times called a “slow-roll”marketing approach, spending relatively little to advertise Apple TV+ compared to its new iPhone 11 lineup. For example, Apple spent twice as much on television commercials for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max than it did on Apple TV+ in the two months leading up to the launch of the streaming service.

While some speculated that Apple was trying to avoid drawing attention to the relatively limited amount of content on its service, others pointed to the fact that it also has little need to attract paying customers when it’s giving away a free year of Apple TV+ to anybody who purchases almost any new Apple device — many iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV set-top box purchases will provide new eyeballs for Apple’s shows anyway.

Now that the service has launched, however, Apple’s marketing efforts seem to be ramping up. By late November, ads for Apple’s flagship shows could be found throughout major cities like Toronto, from billboards to transit stations, and it seems likely that this will continue as new shows are released, but that’s not all that Apple is doing, either.

Book Tie-Ins

In addition to traditional advertising, Apple has begun releasing books that are branded and tied-in to Apple TV+ shows such as Ghostwriter.

As 9to5Mac points out, Sesame Workshop has released versions of the stories that were features in the Apple TV+ kids’ series Ghostwriter that are branded with the name of the series, plus a prominent “Watch Ghostwriter on Apple TV+” sticker on the front. The stories currently include the classics Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Jungle Book, which were featured in the first four episodes, along with a new original story, Trinity that was written specifically for the Apple TV+ series by New York Times Bestselling author DJ MacHale to be released on Dec. 31.

Since Ghostwriter is designed to promote reading among kids, Apple and Sesame Workshop are certainly hoping that the branded versions will encourage more kids to actually read the full stories that are featured on the show. In addition to the stories, the books also include vocabulary guides, puzzles, and other reading games, and more books will surely follow as new episodes appear on Apple TV+.

As the books begin showing up on bookstore shelves they’re also going to naturally promote the Apple TV+ service, especially if Ghostwriter turns to more original stories in future episodes. So far, Apple has only released seven episodes of Ghostwriter, two- and three-part stories that each covered the characters from a single book. It’s unclear when more episodes will appear.

Apple has also used the release of its new Octavia Spencer led crime drama, Truth Be Told, to release a retitled and rebranded version of the book on which the series was based. Originally titled Are You Sleeping, Kathleen Barber’s book has been renamed to match the name of the Apple TV+ series, both in what appears to be a version with the original cover art along with a new cover with artwork from the show featuring Spencer. Both covers include a “Watch on Apple TV+” sticker on the front.

The book Top of the Morning by Brian Stelter, which served as inspiration for The Morning Show, also appears to be tying itself into the Apple TV+ series. However this one seems like it’s an attempt by the publisher to get in on the action rather than something initiated by Apple, as it doesn’t include the same “Apple TV+” sticker as the others, but rather uses a callout on the cover that highlights it as “The Inspiration for Apple TV+’s The Morning Show,” pointing more to the book than to Apple’s streaming service.

Helpsters in New York City

In the case of its new Helpsters preschool series, Apple may be going even further with a pop-up location in New York City. The site was first spotted as such by Parker Ortolani of BuzzFeed, who shared it on Twitter.

According to 9to5Mac the new pop-up can be found at 220 W 16 St in Chelsea, Manhattan, and it’s designed of course to resemble the shop that’s featured on the live-action puppet series, which is a place that teaches kids the fundamentals of problem solving. Other than an Apple TV+ logo and “Watch on Apple TV” badge on the window, there’s no traditional Apple branding. Instead it focuses on the characters from the show, with a tagline that reads “For problems big or small, we’re here to help solve them all!”

The pop-up location doesn’t appear to be open yet, so it’s unclear what the purpose of it might be. 9to5Mac speculates that it could follow the theme of the show and offer hands-on problem solving exercises for children. However, several comments have also suggested that since this is simply the actual filming location for the series, it’s possible that Apple simply left the set in place as a glorified billboard of sorts, and doesn’t actually plan to do anything more with it.