“Tor Myhren, global chief creative officer at WPP Group’s Grey and president of its New York flagship office, will leave the agency at year’s end for a post at tech giant Apple,” David Gianatasio reports for Adweek. “His new role will be vice president of marketing communications for the tech giant, based in California.”
“Myhren has led Grey’s global creative efforts for the past two years, having previously served as its CCO in New York. Since joining the shop in 2007, he is credited with making its creative work among the finest in the world. Last week, Adweek named Grey its Global Agency of the Year for 2015, the second time in three years the shop has won that honor,” Gianatasio reports. “Myhren worked with offices around the world to craft memorable advertising that frequently sparked cultural conversations. His vision came to fruition at the Cannes Lions Festival in June, when Grey offices in 18 countries won 113 Lions, tripling the network’s take for the previous year and establishing an overall agency record. All told, Grey tallied 21 gold (25 if you count its Innovation and Product Design trophies, two in each category), 36 silver and 48 bronze. The network’s efforts merited four Grand Prix statuettes.”
“Asked to sum up his creative philosophy, Myhren recently told Adweek that he strove to create “the kind of work that infiltrates pop culture and gets every corner of the world talking,” adding: ‘I love scale and I love ideas that have real impact in the world. Creativity can solve the world’s biggest problems,'” Gianatasio reports. “‘I really think it’s a great move for both parties, and only good things can come from this,’ said David Droga, creative chairman of Droga5, one of Myhren’s peers on the global agency scene. Industry consultant Avi Dan noted how unusual it is for a high-level creative to hop from an agency to a brand. ‘I can’t recall anybody of Tor’s stature going over to the client side,’ said Dan, who has worked in the business for more than 30 years. ‘The transition from an agency to Apple — it’s a huge transition for him personally. But Apple is a very creative organization. That probably would make it easier for him to adjust.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: May Apple’s advertising efforts again scale to new heights!
SEE ALSO:
Apple assigns App Store oversight to Phil Schiller in apparent nod to developer issues – December 18, 2015
CEO Cook shakes up Apple’s management – December 17, 2015
Apple names Jeff Williams Chief Operating Officer, other executive additions and changes – December 17, 2015
Tim Cook takes full control of Apple: John Browett and Scott Forstall out; Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi get expanded responsibilities – October 29, 2012
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Carlos” for the heads up.]
Oh nos, is there room for two creative icons at ???
There is room for 2 creative icons at Apple, if they work in entirely different areas, which will be the case. We have Jony in design, we have Tor in marketing…if anything, they will appreciate each other’s efforts and each will benefit the other.
Hopefully he wasn’t being serious but a little mischievous.
I’d have to file that under: Duh. 😉
Another mistake, in order to kick out the old apple creed.
Replacing Jony is the mission here?
We want Eddy and we want Tim to leave, he needs to take care of his private issues real quick.
Because of this, Apple’s ads will once again sparkle with intrigue and immediacy. Angela knows him well, the effect on retail presentations will be substantial. Think Tor.
Brilliantly stated:
‘Creativity can solve the world’s biggest problems,’ Gianatasio reports.
Anything, any law, any politics, any government regime, any biznizz or execuTard that stifles creativity stifles human survival and evolution. All the economic stuff is useful too.
He not busy being born is busy dying.
– Bob Dylan
and all I wanted was:
when Apple Watch Apr 24 date became moot because they had run out of stock before that date was for a PR guy to come out and say “the date is Changed” (which didn’t happen) and for Apple to run a few Mac ads especially for (the giant) Christmas shopping season (which they have not done for years) ….
in spite of having supposedly hundreds of staff in their new in house ad department .
Apple Marcom (Marketing Communications) desperately needs help.
Good luck Tor ….
Advertising at Apple generally is mixed these days don’t know if that has anything to do with the split between inside and outside work but then neither seem to really have a strong focus like it used to be with such hit and miss efforts for some time now. Hopefully this guy can bring it altogether in the way advertising and marketing used to have, i.e. a company look, feel and focused ethos.
++++
agree
I guess he must be good but to be honest I have never heard of Grey.