A little over 13 years ago, when I wrote on my LinkedIn profile, paraphrasing Martin Luther King, “I had a dream”, I had no idea that this dream would become reality. I dreamt of building a radically innovative communications agency. “That dream now has a name: it is called APPLE TREE”.

Since then, APPLE TREE has been developing innovative communication strategies based on our NEW THINKING, in collaboration with more than 400 clients throughout the world. We have the privilege of working with iconic brands that have and continue to be committed to our different way of thinking.

The dream of establishing a radically innovative communications agency can only become a reality if this NEW THINKING is part of your DNA. Our brand, APPLE TREE, is inspired by Isaac Newton’s famous apple.  Newton wasn’t the first person to see an apple fall from a tree, but he was the first person to look at it differently: he didn’t just see an apple fall, he also looked for answers where others did not; he formulated hypotheses and tested them. He looked at the action with NEW THINKING.

Newton wasn’t the first person to see an apple fall from a tree, but he was the first person to look at it differently.

But what exactly is NEW THINKING? What does it bring to our clients?  Basically, it is understanding that, today, in the ‘information society’, communication is absolutely strategic. It is also a different way of working: it means studying the challenges faced by major brands from different angles, which allows us to build more innovative communication strategies that provide new competitive advantages.

Specifically, being a strategic communications agency with NEW THINKING brings four key values for our clients:

NEW STRATEGIES. We base our actions on data and not just on “feelings”, past experience, or our knowledge of “key people”. We analyze the big data, but what interests us is taking out what we call “SMALL DATA”, those few insights that really serve to build winning strategies. Clients call APPLE TREE because of our reputation as the most “creative” or “different”, but they always hire us for being the most strategic and for putting communication at the centre of the business. Our clients benefit from the most innovative communication strategies that best reflect the essence of their brands and resolve their challenges.

We analyze the big data, but what interests us is taking out what we call “SMALL DATA”, those few insights that really serve to build winning strategies.

COURAGE. We believe that only the most courageous brands get great results. We like to question briefs and propose alternative pathways. We like to think big together with our clients. We like to propose direct and relevant communication campaigns. And what we really like is working together with our clients in a more curious, creative, and daring way and, thanks to this, achieving better results for their business.

CREATIVITY WITH A PR FOCUS. People prefer brands and companies with more social and human purposes. This is why we develop communication and creative strategies that add value and not noise. Our clients get more engagement and greater conversion rates because our creativity, with a PR focus, makes them more credible and relevant.

DIVERSITY AND INTEGRATION. We believe in multidisciplinary teams (digital experts with journalists, consultants, and creative staff) to solve the increasingly complex problems of communication in the digital age. We are not content to be “just consultants”, we work side by side with our clients to meet their challenges and achieve their goals.

Perhaps because of this, after just 13 years, we have grown to be a team of 150 professionals in 5 offices located on 3 continents, professionals who, as well as excelling in their field, work with a NEW THINKING approach.

Perhaps it is also because of this approach that, in recent industry studies, APPLE TREE has become a gold-standard agency. We are considered to be the number one strategic communications agency in innovation, creativity, and online marketing in Spain,(1) and are among the 40 most creative independent agencies in the world.(2)

It seems that the world needs more NEW THINKING now more than ever. The changes we are facing in the 21st century are taking place at a rate never seen before. The digital revolution, new brands and businesses such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Spotify, and TikTok appear from nowhere and lead the world in less than a generation. Climate change, population growth, the big social protest movements such as Black Lives Matter, and the current global pandemic require new approaches and new communication from the big brands.

It is in this current context that we have decided to explicitly verbalize our innovative philosophy, with which we have been working since we were established. Our way of working is now also our brand claim. APPLE TREE, NEW THINKING.

I am convinced that, with this philosophy, APPLE TREE will continue to be a stand-out agency in Spain and on the international stage.

Our dream is to inspire and empower more communications and marketing professionals with our NEW THINKING because, if we all believe that we can change things, and even change the world, we will get there in the end. Taking the first step is always the most important.

In the words of another great American activist, who ended up becoming president of the US and fulfilling the “dream” of Martin Luther King: YES WE CAN!

Carme Miró Cloutier

C.E.O. APPLE TREE

(1) PR Scope 2019 de SCOPEN
(2) Lista de referencia de los WINA 2019