UNLOCKING THE DIGITAL ORCHARD: HARVESTING THE BEST OF ENTERTAINMENT WITH A BITE OF APPLE

When the orchard is as big as the Internet, with as many apples and as many choices for entertainment as computer screens can contain, knowing which fruit of the entertainment tree is juiciest can cause us to look up at the sky, not down at our feet, unsure where to shake our baskets. One of the big trees in this orchard is Verizon, who has positioned itself as the farmer in the field, and they’re selling the fruit. Their new initiative to revolutionise the streaming world is selling data plans, but is also selling access to an ad-free paradise.

A REFRESHING SLICE OF THE STREAMING WORLD

The Verizon deal is like finding a fresh apple in your fruit basket: refreshing, and exactly what you’re in the mood for On 30 May, Verizon customers will find an item in their myPlan benefits that’s like a fresh apple in your fruit basket: refreshing, and exactly what you’re in the mood for. Starting 30 May, YouTube Premium, previously known as YouTube Music Premium, is just $10 for Verizon customers, down from $13.99 with an existing subscription. You can listen to as much music, watch as much video without ads and download any of your favorites for offline listening or viewing.

APPLE OF THE DIGITAL EYE: INTEGRATING APPLE ONE

But that is still not the whole of the apple with this deal. Verizon’s myPlan subscriptions already provide a bounty of digital services for subscribers to add on – including access to Disney Plus as well as Apple One. That’s the ultimate cherry on top of Verizon’s entertainment sundae, pairing its suite of suitable content with Apple’s suite of services to provide whatever tastes and budgets demand. Entertainment has long been a major draw for customers, as Apple’s bundle with its suite of Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, iCloud and more already gathered under one roof would indicate.

PEACOCK PLUMES IN THE VERIZON ORCHARD

And with Apple rumoured to add a further fig to the basket in the coming months, Verizon users will have even more plums than one to crunch on. Peacock drops into the basket on 5 June. Courtesy VerizonVerizon Plus Play is a new service from the makers of Verizon. It’s a subscription service for other subscription services. A one-stop shop if there ever was. All your digital content needs in one place. No need to squint your online bank statement in the sunshine to see which subscriptions you’re paying for, with which. No need to search for new passwords when you unselect one service only to select another. Peacock joins the Verizon Plus Play basket alongside Netflix, Max, Paramount Plus and AMC Plus.

A BUFFET OF DIGITAL DELIGHTS

Verizon’s buffetised offer is especially appealing because of its overarching vision of making available a smörgåsbord of digital delights where consumers design the menu based on taste, whim and appetite. Consumers can now mix and match their digital consumption within a single subscription in ways that may not have been possible before.

NAVIGATING THE ORCHARD: HOW TO BEST ENJOY THIS FEAST

This is where the digital apples come into play: to enjoy these fully, you first must be a subscriber to Verizon’s myPlan, after which you navigate among the many services through its curatorial Verizon Plus Play digital dashboard (which addresses some of the cognitive overload and administrative work of multiplying subscriptions). In return, Verizon becomes a curator of the digital entitlements you want to engage with, such as an Apple One subscription. Verizon rhetorically positions itself at the centre of the digital orchard that you navigate, and that remains true even as new services like Apple One get integrated into the mix.

THE CORE OF THE MATTER: WHY APPLE STANDS OUT

One of a myriad services being bundled is Apple’s ecosystem, which the company has carefully cultivated with its generous offerings of content, from beautifully artistic Apple TV+ fiction to the immersive worlds of Apple Arcade. When you pick this apple, you actually pick a bundle of entertainment that not only includes the content of the iOS ecosystem but also the ease of use. And this helps to tie the meshed world of your digital experience.

UNDERSTANDING THE APPEAL OF APPLE

Icelanders on a glacier, surrounded by streams of black ice. Daniel Day-Lewis stretching his arms. The sun setting behind Silicon Valley’s most iconic campus. This is how you will market Apple to people. Not as cutting-edge tech. Not as a feature set of various gadgets. Not as a spreadsheet of specifications and offerings. Not as a business. Not as a technology firm. Not as a company or a conglomerate or a contractor or a corporation or a bureaucracy or an empire. You will market Apple as an experience – one that’s more technologically inclusive, more visually pleasing and more privacy-sensitive than is available elsewhere. Apple, as a brand. Apple as an experience. Apple as a tapestry. That’s why Apple resonates so deeply with people and why it is the most valuable company in the world. That’s why Apple One just made Verizon a better digital lifestyle experience.