Madison Avenue is betting that Apple’s advertising business is headed for a shake-up — and knows just the man to do it.
Ad executives salivating over the juicy prospect point to signs that the tech giant is tiring of longtime creative agency TBWA Media Labs after 30 years and is ready to put its entire account up for grabs.
What’s more, the industry is buzzing that Apple will look to music maestro Jimmy Iovine, the boss of newly acquired Beats headphones and its sister music-streaming service, to help it regain its marketing mojo.
The fashionable Beats brand, which Apple acquired for $3 billion, outmaneuvered official World Cup sponsor Sony with its “Game Before the Game” ad campaign. So many soccer stars sported Beats that Sony had them banned from the arena.
“Apple bought Beats for a lot of reasons,” said one new business executive at a top agency. “They think they’re marketing geniuses. It is safe to assume Beats would be part of an assessment of all [Apple] partners.”
Although Apple hasn’t put its ad account up for a formal review, critics say such a move can’t come soon enough for the iPhone maker.
Smartphone rival Samsung, which turned up the heat last year by lampooning Apple in a series of clever ads, is back with another mocking campaign. This one shows iPhone users huddled around power outlets trying to charge up their devices while Samsung users go by on their merry way.
The earlier campaign had people laughing at those lining up for the latest iPhone when most of the “new” features were already available on Samsung phones.
The Samsung ads are reminiscent of Apple’s own “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC,” one of a series of successful campaigns created with TBWA and its predecessor, Chiat/Day.
Despite one of the longest and most fruitful relationships in the business, including Apple’s iconic “1984” Super Bowl spot and the “Think Different” campaign, the partners appear to be at the break-up point.
Apple set tongues wagging with word that it’s building an in-house agency by hiring as many as 1,000 media buyers and creatives. The company also has started asking outside ad agencies to pitch ideas on various projects, Ad Age reported last month.
In a sign that the agency needs fresh thinking, longtime TBWA chief Tom Carroll was named chairman last week, with Troy Ruhanen replacing him as global CEO.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is clearly looking to kick off a new luxury era in Apple’s approach to advertising under marketing boss Phil Schiller.
Apparently, Schiller, who has been fending off criticism from even Apple board members, came close to firing TWBA over lame ads.
An e-mail from early 2013 that came to light this spring as part of a Samsung lawsuit included this embarrassing note to the agency: “I now have Apple board members asking ‘what is going on with advertising and what are you going to do to fix it?’” wrote Schiller.
Adding to the indignities, Apple just lost its title as the most valuable brand three years running to Google in a Millward Brown study.
Apple declined to comment.