Apple Looking to Nearly Double Headcount of In-House Creative Design Team

[macs4nw]

I agree, not a positive thing based on what I want Apple to be. Call me nostalgic but I wish Apple were more like it was around 2005-2007. I appreciate their new products, but I liked the size, the intimacy, the excitement, and the purpose behind the company back then. Times change, companies adapt and grow. But this hiring is a step away from the Apple I loved 7 years ago. I'm still a fan, but wish things could be more like they were.

Call it the bane of success. Being high-profile means the spotlight on you, all the time. When you're a relatively small company, which Apple arguably was, before the run-away success of the iPhone, and doing well, it is possible to stay mostly under the radar. Then when you start growing, and become really successful, media attention as well as expectations, go off the charts, spoiling some of the former low-profile fun and excitement. I don't think you're alone in this; many others, including yours truly, miss the former Apple at times.

I am not sure this is such good news. In my experience as 20 year ad industry veteran, quite often internal teams succumb to internal squabbles and incestual thought processes that quickly stagnate the brand. Hiring external agencies/talent in my experience consistently yields a broader range of ideas and approaches to marketing problems.

Say what…..?

 

[JohnnyGreenEggs]

There are two kinds of marketers: profit-led or product-led. The latter is the exception because it takes more balls, and more creativity.
Who's to say the conventional model (ie. third party agencies) is necessarily better? Assuming you hire experienced, creative-is-hero, passionate people, creating the marketing from inside means you've got a dedicated, responsive, loyal team of brand stewards. And contrary to conventional thinking, if every one on your inside team makes it their goal to produce the very best product, it promotes more entrepreneurial, out-of-the-box thinking than you might get from outside the company.
We've been doing it for four years at Vega (myvega.com) - from packaging, in-store, online and mass media. Get used to it, folks. The only thing noteworthy here is it's happening in such a big company.

 

[fredf]

You need to pay attention more. There's tons of functionality...

Well I guess you're the type of fanboy that Apple is counting on to stay in business.

Keep up the cheer!

 

[Mtmspa]

So message board posters know more about Apple's hiring needs than the company? And 99% of you have never owned a business or been a CEO.

 

[Mactendo]

Smells bad to me

 

[Gudi]

The only advertising Apple needs lies in the quality of its products.

Microsoft Surface a Flop? Advertising Outpaces Revenue

See, this happens when people start to believe that advertising matters.

 

[twoodcc]

i would like to see apple get more involved in ads. they need a change for sure

 

[tmanto02]

Great news for young advertisers like me! Now if only I lived in Palo Alto!

 

[Battlefield Fan]

Lolz everyone's getting pissy about iOS 7. I'm looking forward to something different considering we've had the same thing since 2007.

 

[3282868]

Finally! Now hire more engineers instead of spreading OS X engineers to iOS when behind.

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So message board posters know more about Apple's hiring needs than the company? And 99% of you have never owned a business or been a CEO.

Guess I'm a 1%'er

 

[dazed]

Throwing more people at a problem rarely works.

 

[3282868]

Throwing more people at a problem rarely works.

Misnomer. This isn't "too many cooks in the kitchen". Apple has grown tremendously since 2007. Engineering and product development has been an issue for a long while, resulting in already over taxed engineering teams that regularly move to iOS development to meet iPhone/iPad launch dates. Apple has had a very small engineering team that Scott Forstall headed. We now know this caused serious rifts within Cupertino as Forstall's control of iOS and OS X skeuomorphic design grew. Apple needed to re-evaluate its departments and make the necessary changes, and they're doing just that now.

Demand has skyrocketed, yet internal development is riding on its coattails. With market share/growth comes growing pains, if a business does not adapt it will fall behind.

 

[dazed]

Misnomer. This isn't "too many cooks in the kitchen". Apple has grown tremendously since 2007. Engineering and product development has been an issue for a long while, resulting in already over taxed engineering teams that regularly move to iOS development to meet iPhone/iPad launch dates. Apple has had a very small engineering team that Scott Forstall headed. We now know this caused serious rifts within Cupertino as Forstall's control of iOS and OS X skeuomorphic design grew. Apple needed to re-evaluate its departments and make the necessary changes, and they're doing just that now.

Demand has skyrocketed, yet internal development is riding on its coattails. With market share/growth comes growing pains, if a business does not adapt it will fall behind.

And doubling the amount of people giving input won't cause more rifts ?

I'm just playing devils advocate here. Heres hoping lots of fresh ideas will come out of this as that's something that seems to be missing as of late.

 

[3282868]

I'm just playing devils advocate here. Heres hoping lots of fresh ideas will come out of this as that's something that seems to be missing as of late.

Agree 100%