“Apple Inc. has shifted to producing more of its own television advertisements instead of relying on agency TBWA\Chiat\Day, underscoring how the longtime partnership responsible for the company’s most memorable ads is fraying,” Peter Burrows reports for Bloomberg.
“An Apple team made the iPad Air ad last year that highlighted the device’s thinness, as well as a spot this year with Robin Williams quoting from the film “Dead Poets Society” and other ads airing now, said Amy Bessette, a spokeswoman for Apple. The internal team includes at least two people Apple hired away from Media Arts Lab, a TBWA unit that only serves the iPhone maker, people with knowledge of the matter said,” Burrows reports. “A rift between Apple and TBWA\Chiat\Day, which worked together on the company’s Orwellian Super Bowl ad in 1984, once would have been unthinkable, said Regis McKenna, a technology marketing consultant who introduced agency founder Jay Chiat to Steve Jobs in the early 1980s.”
“Apple began creating the ads in-house a few months after marketing chief Phil Schiller considered ending the company’s relationship with Media Arts Lab in January 2013, according to an e-mail from Schiller disclosed in April as part of a lawsuit with Samsung Electronics Co. Media Arts Lab had created iconic Apple campaigns for iPods and Macs, yet Schiller wrote that it hadn’t effectively countered Samsung ads that cast Apple as stodgy and poked fun at its installed base as cultish and geeky,” Burrows reports. “‘If we need to do this, we should get going,’ Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook responded at the time to a message from Schiller about possibly needing to change agencies.”
“Instead of ending the relationship entirely, Apple began building up its own team,” Burrows reports. “The partnership’s effectiveness had started to wane after Jobs’s death in 2011. While Samsung’s cheeky ads took aim at Apple’s brand image, Apple tried a variety of campaigns that failed to win accolades, including spots for its Siri voice-recognition service featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Zooey Deschanel, and a short-lived campaign about the lives of Apple geniuses.”
“People with knowledge of the partnership said that Vincent had been an effective translator of Jobs’s wishes to his team. Vincent has been less successful at coming up with ideas that pleased Schiller, who frustrated the agency with his lack of a clear vision, the people said. Apple’s decision to create its own ads may be a result of the company’s own issues in filling the creative vacuum left by Jobs’s death, said Edward Boches, a professor of advertising at Boston University,” Burrows reports. “‘More often than not, great ads come from a single confident decision maker making gut calls, not from someone with a paid title,’ he said. ‘This could be a reflection of a customer that doesn’t know what they want, or doesn’t know how to make a decision.'”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote in March 2013:
Steve Jobs held a three-hour meeting every Wednesday afternoon with his top agency, marketing and communications people to approve each new commercial, print ad, web ad, and billboard. Does Tim Cook? If he does, does he have anything close to Jobs’ sensibilities in this area? Judging from Apple’s marketing since Steve left the building, he does not. Therefore, Cook needs to find a marketing guru to take Steve’s place, conduct these Wednesday meetings, and hold his marketing peoples’ feet to the fire until he/she is extremely satisfied.
And as we followed up with in April of this year:
As Apple CEO, Steve Jobs focused on two things – product design and marketing. He was a genius at both. His talents cannot be replaced with one person. In fact, his talents in either discipline cannot be replaced by one person. Jony Ive and Phil Schiller without Jobs cannot be expected to perform as if Jobs was still working with them.
A team of people – talented people who actually get it and who are all on the same page – is an absolute necessity for Apple’s success, but it creates a problem: Jobs was a single filter. A unified mind. The founder. A group of people simply cannot replicate that. This is not to say that they cannot do great work (we believe Apple does, and will continue, to do great work) just that Apple is fundamentally affected by the loss of Steve Jobs and has to figure out a new way to work.
Related articles:
Apple debuts ‘Chicken Fat’ television ad (with video) – June 5, 2014
Emails show Phil Schiller shocked over Apple’s ad agency suggestions – April 8, 2014
Apple’s advertising dilemma aired at $2 billion trial – April 4, 2014
Samsung again mocks Apple customers in iPhone 5 queue via new Galaxy S III ad (with video) – September 19, 2012
Apple pulls ‘Genius’ ad series from its website, YouTube channel – August 22, 2012
Samsung runs print ad attacking Apple’s iPhone 5 in major U.S. newspapers – September 16, 2012
Samsung Super Bowl ad mocks Apple iPhone users – February 6, 2012
Could the Apple-TBWA love affair, one of advertising’s most-storied matchups, survive without Jobs? – January 24, 2011
After witnessing an apple ad during last nights hockey game (“shed the chicken fat)”, something needs to be done.
as well as a spot this year with Robin Williams quoting from the film “Dead Poets Society”
Oh dear. That’s why…
The new iPad app featuring the composer Esa-Pekka Salonen is brilliant.
“As Apple CEO, Steve Jobs focused on two things – product design and marketing. He was a genius at both. His talents cannot be replaced with one person. In fact, his talents in either discipline cannot be replaced by one person. Jony Ive and Phil Schiller without Jobs cannot be expected to perform as if Jobs was still working with them.”
I could not disagree with MDN more.
Steve Jobs was neither a great product design guy nor a great marketer. His single greatest talent was knowing great things when he saw them. He was better at that than virtually anyone else in this industry. He was notorious for tweaking things ad infinitum when he was trying to do the design or come up with a marketing campaign himself. However, when people showed him a series of options or something new and different he could almost always (with a few notable exceptions, e.g., the hockey puck mouse) choose the one that was the best. Steve Jobs had an innate ability to see excellence in specific implementations amongst a field of mediocre versions and even total crap.
“A team of people – talented people who actually get it and who are all on the same page – is an absolute necessity for Apple’s success, but it creates a problem: Jobs was a single filter. A unified mind. The founder. A group of people simply cannot replicate that. This is not to say that they cannot do great work (we believe Apple does, and will continue, to do great work) just that Apple is fundamentally affected by the loss of Steve Jobs and has to figure out a new way to work.”
Again, I disagree. Apple *can* find someone with Steve’s abilities. Unfortunately, those people are extremely rare. Yes, it will likely take a pair of people to do this. But in each case: Design and Marketing, *ONE* person must be THE decision maker. Designing or Marketing by committee has never, ever been the best option.
We cannot put all the blame on the absence of Jobs. There have been major changes in management at TBWA\Chiat\Day that also coincide with a decline in the quality and amount of advertising coming from Apple. Vincent does not seem to be a great communicator, for someone who makes his living communicating thoughts and ideas. Maybe it’s time for Apple to look elsewhere.
Well, here’s the thing… great agencies don’t operate in a creative vacuum. It also takes great products from great clients… who have great management.
If what was said about Phil Schiller wanting to respond to Samsung’s pathetic ads (and I’ve read about this from different sources) is true, then Schiller (however great he may be at anything else) is the wrong man for the job.
The best thing Apple did was not respond to those ads. They reeked of desperation and were creatively juvenile. Creating advertising that responds to another company’s desperation smacks of even greater desperation. It says you are reactive, not proactive and are creatively bankrupt.
Apple is making great products, and I think they should be responding to Samsung’s ads. I think the response should be along the lines of “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC”. There are plenty of comparisons to be made about ease of use, malware, compatibility, and originality.
Should the head of Worldwide Marketing (http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/philip-w-schiller.html) be taking care of that function?
maybe they can get Dr Dre to create all the new ads.
“hey mothafucka buy this Appa’,
or we be thrown’ your ass in da’ crappa’.”
I like this Tim, I like it a lot.
Its not always that someone can instinctively pick a winner sometimes its a matter of making a choice and making it the very best you can. making a decision is far better than being indecisive trying to search for the right one. SJ got that balance right most of the time though sometimes got it wrong but he made a decision saw a vision and went with it and if you do so with confidence most of the time you will make a success of it especially in a market where everyone else is dithering
If you are a brilliant ad man marketing genius with a proven incredible track record of dynamite ad campaigns and you appreciate the incredible things Apple has done and is doing to empower the creative community please step forward and help these guy with their marketing. It seems to me Apple needs one brilliant guy who knows good talent and a good ad campaign when he sees it and know how to get it. The last soccer ad is appalling—elitist, low-class-opera, campy, wimpy tune— a far cry from the excitement of a Hendrix intro of a Steve iPod ad. That blurry iPod gaming photo on the was shocking. (But a lot of the photography and marketing is still great quality, it just needs a dynamite creative head). Find the best ad guy who is the best cultural fit and offer him a $billion dollars in shares— as valuable as Beats. Or better still, if that guy is reading this—step up to the challenge and help make Apple ads exciting again—maybe work with the Beats guys on something. They are in touch with what makes a great soundtrack. Sounds exciting to me. I’m sure they’re working on it—these thing don’t happen overnight.
Get Tim to call me.
TBWA\Chiat\Day was both brilliant and a big problem. When Steve Jobs was handling them and keeping them under a tight leash, they produced some of the most brilliant ad campaigns ever. But in the pre-iPod era, or ever worse, the pre-Jobs-return era, they were infamous for making ads that were both fascinating to watch and utterly useless at getting the point across.
If Apple doesn’t have the time or resources to corral that agency like Jobs did, going another route is probably best.
——RM
Anyone know if APPLE made the chicken fat one ?