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Apple may ditch longtime ad agency TBWA, look to Beats' Jimmy Iovine for marketing

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A report on Monday says ad industry executives are speculating that Apple's longtime relationship with agency TBWA\\Media Arts Lab is near its breaking point, with some insiders predicting the tech giant will look to Beats' Jimmy Iovine to revitalize its marketing magic.

According to the New York Post, Madison Avenue executives are giddy over the prospect that Apple may soon ditch longtime ad partner TBWA\\Media Arts Lab in favor of a new agency, with some saying the Cupertino company is looking to Beats' cofounder Jimmy Iovine to reinvigorate the brand's marketing operations.

"Apple bought Beats for a lot of reasons," said one unnamed ad executive. "They think they're marketing geniuses. It is safe to assume Beats would be part of an assessment of all [Apple] partners."

Among other "evidence," ad execs point to email correspondence that came out in April as part of Apple's second California court case against Samsung. In a series of emails, Apple SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller expressed concern to TBWA over Samsung's recent rise in marketing prowess.

Specifically, the Korean company managed to gain enough traction that the Wall Street Journal ran a critique of Apple's ad efforts, asking "Has Apple Lost Its Cool To Samsung?" Schiller pressed TBWA, telling the ad firm, "We have a lot of work to do to turn this around."

TBWA\\Media Arts Lab, an offshoot of TBWA\\Chiat\\Day specifically tasked to handle Apple's account, responded with a memo that suggested Apple make sweeping organizational operating changes. Schiller was apparently "shocked" by the response, which TBWA later recanted as "overblown."

On the flip side, a report from June 2013 claimed TBWA\\Media Arts Lab has supposedly been at odds with Schiller's management style since Apple cofounder Steve Jobs died in 2011.

A report from June claimed Apple is quickly building out its own ad team with more than 1,000 hires in sales and creative personnel.

Most recently, a survey looked at the effectiveness of Apple ads over the past year, pitting those made by TBWA against in-house creations from Apple. The study gave higher marks to the outside ad agency.



40 Comments

brlawyer 17 Years · 810 comments

Sure, just show someone wearing gigantic headphones and saying "I am a Mac"...I am sure it's gonna work.

dgnr8 21 Years · 182 comments

My thoughts and fears are coming true.

 

When Mr. Job's passed I thought there goes the deciding factor, there goes the tie breaker, there goes the peace maker.

 

Now rather than one cohesive execution with attention to detail you are going to see more and more fractioning of control.

 

I don't think it is going to matter how awesome the products are going to be or how they market those products, it is the dirty laundry that has been coming out over the last couple of years that is the problem and is starting to tarnish the brand.

 

Mr. Job's would never stand for any of this to reach the light of public eye or you were done. I do not see the same level of respect (or fear) for Mr. Cook.

adonissmu 15 Years · 1758 comments

I have to see the ads Apple comes out with first before I judge. They may be done well. Lord knows they couldn't get much worse than the geek ads... I want Apple to stop doing so many ads honestly. I think fewer location targeted ads is better. 

paxman 18 Years · 4729 comments

Well the current series of ads are nice, well done, and possibly effective (Really like Parenthood - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmTpgSMJ96c&list=PLHFlHpPjgk713fMv5O4s4Fv7k6yTkXwkV), but there is nothing 'iconic' about recent campaigns. They are just too 'feel good' and 'safe'. Apple's marketing needs a shake up. Mind you, as exciting as bringing in the Apple account might be, it is also a hugely difficult account. It is easy to say a campaign needs to be iconic, it is much different to be tasked with the job. I think Jimmy Lovine would be a great marketing lead.  

 

When I say 'marketing' I mean the high profile tv spots.

mac-sochist 17 Years · 675 comments

I think they need to go back to TBWA, hat in hand. These latest ads are either boring as hell or incredibly obnoxious. If I hear that damn chicken fat ad one more time, I'm going to lose my freakin' mind.