“We all know that things are different in the post-Steve Apple,” Ken Segall writes for Observatory. “However, there’s something about the current move to build an in-house marketing agency that’s really, really different.”
“Unlike previous changes, this one isn’t driven by Tim Cook. It comes from a new place, deeper inside the company — from those who long played a part in Steve Jobs’ marketing machine,” Segall writes. “The industry and the press seem to be surprised by this development. To many others, it’s a wonder it didn’t happen sooner.”
“When Steve passed away, his marketing process lived on. But few people imagined it would stay intact for long. For when opportunity presents itself, human beings have a bad habit of acting very human. Call it ego, ambition, a sincere desire to improve, or any combination thereof — suddenly there was a chance to ‘make things better,'” Segall writes. “That chance came courtesy of a new CEO who basically said ‘This isn’t my area of expertise, so I trust you guys to do the right thing.’ Depending on your point of view, those words either opened the magic door — or opened Pandora’s box.”
“Of course, Steve had Phil Schiller and others as marketing advisors. But his relationship with the agency was special — forged through many years of history-making ads. As much as the agency wanted Phil to be happy, the highest priority was making Steve happy,” Segall writes. “So it didn’t take a genius to guess that when Phil became the marketing leader, the nature of the agency relationship would change dramatically. As the new chief, Phil was veto-proof. However, he did not have the same level of taste as Steve. Nor did he have an emotional connection to the agency.”
Read more in the full article here.
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 building 1,000-person internal advertising agency – June 10, 2014
Apple shifts TV ads production in-house as rift widens with TBWA\Chiat\Day – June 5, 2014
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
Thing is yet to be determined if these internal efforts or their influence upon the external ones are remotely a positive. We can live in hope I guess.
I remain optimistic until proven otherwise,
Steve wouldn’t have stayed with the agency if they pulled the same thing with him as they did with Tim.
They were caught flat-footed in response to Samsung’s attack. As an agency, they should have seen this coming and already had a plan. Instead, they went to Apple management and outlined a plan to change the way operated, stepping unbelievably past their bounds. Confidence was shaken. I’ve seen it happen a thousand times when an agency comes up with some pie-in-the-sky fantasy bullshit (remember RIM’s weird chick looking at the camera ads? WTF?). Just as Apple is taking control of their supplier chain, it makes sense to do the same with marketing.
MDN…
Maybe the new way will result into even better results !
Steve is gone..
It is so tiring to hear “Steve would have this or that “!
It is an unprovable and useless statement ! No one knows what Steve would have said or done ! Facts are he had his share of greatness and screw ups !
So get over it and accept Apple with its new leadership ..
To me they are and have been doing an outstanding job in a very difficult transitionary times ..
I totally agree with you.
Sometimes I wonder what would happen if Steve lived for another 20+ years. What would become of Apple after that? Steve would have been so deeply entrenched in Apple that no one else will be able to make decisions that would seem good enough.
After all, it was Steve who said that death was a good thing. It allows the next generation to step up and stand on their own feet. And that is exactly what we are seeing happen. It’s all going to be good.
I just wonder if Phil Schiller is the right guy to run this operation. Sure he wants to. Who wouldn’t want to be emperor? But could it be part of why he’s pushing for the change in the first place? Because he wants a larger fiefdom. After all, all those failed ads that ticked Phil off and made him want to jump ship — who at Apple was in charge of green-lighting them again? Oh right. Phil.
Apple doesn’t need a new way to work. They need to continue to work on the model Steve built: singular focus on what is great. What feels great, what works great! This will win out in marketing too.