By Angela Palumbo
As Apple prepared to launch the MacBook Neo -- its first laptop specifically aimed at younger people -- the company knew its old marketing strategies weren't going to cut it. Gen Z doesn't care for big, slick ads. In fact, it doesn't want any sales pitches. So, Apple tried a new approach -- and it looks to be just right.
Everyone knows Apple's traditional way of marketing. The company is responsible for one of the most famous Super Bowl ads of all time, its "1984" commercial that introduced Macintosh computers to millions of viewers. Apple then launched a collection of black-and-white photos of historical figures with the tagline "Think Different" -- the images became fixtures of the 1990s ad landscape. Apple's iPod ads in the early 2000s that featured dark silhouettes with contrasting white headphones were also big hits.
More recently, Apple TV ads have resembled movie productions. One showed people recording action sequences with iPhone 17 Pro Maxes, including a movie set where a pirate ship was under attack, and another featuring an incoming tornado.
That type of advertising wasn't going to work for the Neo.
The new laptop, introduced on March 4, starts at $599, or $499 for students. That's cheaper than the iPhone 17, which starts at $799, and is almost half the price of a MacBook Air, which has been a popular choice of college students.
The Neo's low price point and simple specifications -- 8 gigabytes of memory, 256GB of storage, and an A18 Pro chip -- make it a desirable student option. The trick? How to get Gen Z's attention.
Apple began posting a variety of videos to TikTok the same day it launched the Neo. The posts differed dramatically from other Apple ad campaigns. One TikTok video was just 15 seconds long and showed a lime FaceTiming a lemon on a MacBook. Yes, fruits.
Apple also introduced a new mascot to its TikTok videos that is being referred to as "Lil' Finder Guy." He resembles the Finder icon on Apple computers, but with a tiny stature and goofy mannerisms. One video starts with the character face down on a school desk, his legs not even close to touching the ground.
While some might be puzzled by Apple's new approach, marketing experts say that this is exactly the type of marketing Gen-Z responds to.
"They don't want to be advertised to. They want to be invited in," Rob Baiocco, co-founder and chief creative officer of marketing agency The BAM Connection, tells Barron's.
Apple also hasn't restricted itself to one social-media platform. The company started posting on a new Instagram account called "Hello Apple" soon after the launch. The content on this account, which has about 234,000 followers, is more creative and user focused than what's on the original Apple Instagram, with its 36.6 million followers.
It was critical for Apple to amp up its social media presence if it wanted to reach a younger demographic. According to a 2025 Deloitte survey, 63% of Gen Zers said ads or product reviews on social media were most influential to their purchasing decisions.
This new marketing strategy seems to be working. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook posted on X on March 20 that, "Mac just had its best launch week ever for first-time Mac customers."
In addition to the marketing changes, industry headwinds could be working in Apple's favor.
Memory is a key component of servers used to power artificial intelligence. Demand currently is far outpacing supply, so laptop makers like Dell Technologies and HP Inc. are raising prices to offset rising costs. Young consumers could be drawn to the Neo as Apple rivals raise prices on comparable products.
"Apple has a real opportunity to grab some meaningful kind of share when their competitors are on their back feet, struggling with some macro difficulty," says Rosenblatt Securities analyst Barton Crockett.
Bringing in new customers is key for Apple. More customers mean increased growth in services revenue, which includes the App Store, Apple Music, and other subscription products. Services produce the company's highest margins, so while product margins might come under pressure as memory costs rise, adding new customers could lead to improved services margins.
Keran Smith, co-founder and chief marketing officer at LYFE Marketing, offers Barron's another reason why Neo's success is a good sign for Apple: "We know that when people get an Apple product, they stay with Apple and they expand through all of their products. So, they get to capture a younger demographic early on and then carry that lifetime value out across the life span of a customer."
Now that Apple has the foundation of a strong social-media presence branded toward a younger audience, and a successful Neo introduction, more launches are likely. "Our expectation is that there will likely be another refresh of the Neo," says Ryan Reith, group vice president for IDC's Worldwide Device Tracker suite.
Apple's marketing strategy shift may have surprised some, but it was a smart move to excite a specific set of new customers about a product launch. Expect more ahead.
Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 10, 2026 03:00 ET (07:00 GMT)
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