Apple's Advertising Revamp Include Plans for In-House Team of 1,000 Employees

[i8020]

Think Different

To all those writing, no you can't do this, no they can't do that and TC isn't capable.

In fact you can run an in-house agency like an external one. It's just about how you structure, manage and embed the team into the existing organisation.

Furthermore nobody is writing this will be just one big team. Imagine several competing in-house agencies teams interacting with the rest like an external one.

So there you go ;-) Your traditional model implemented in-house!

PS: Remember the old days of competing teams. TC and the rest of the execs worked long enough to capture SJs vision & style.

 

[Abazigal]

You nailed it. A different point of view is mandatory. Trying to please your boss and trying to satisfy your paying customer may not always go in the same direction

If an outside view means telling your customer that his product sucks (when it's not your business to do so in the first place), then a Apple is no worse off owning their own ad agency.

I see advertising like modelling. You are paid to promote a piece of clothing on stage, you do it to the best of your ability, regardless of any misgivings you may have. It's not the model's place to tell the designer how her designs could be improved.

Same with advertising. You give your customer what he wants. You can offer your own suggestions, but if they don't like it, you listen to them and don't insist on pushing your own stance. That just strikes me as needlessly arrogant. I am surprised Apple has stuck with them as long as they did.

 

[12dylan34]

As a student in advertising, I'm happy to hear things like this. I suppose there's probably not a huge gain or loss of jobs, since TBWA Chiat/Day is losing a lot of business as well, but I'll definitely be applying to in-house places like Apple. It would be pretty awesome to be able to work there, even if it's "just" in marketing.

 

[playspeed]

With 1000 ppl, Probably Apple is going into full length movie production.

 

[GregAndonian]

In october tell to the same dude to start writing an email on the phone and then continue writing it on his pc. Then ask him to answer the phone on the same pc, while the phone is charging

Since I do email through Yahoo, I can transition from my note 3 to PC now by saving a draft. Just saying...

(The phone answering stuff sounds really cool though, and is pretty innovative if you ask me... )

 

[Larry-K]

If an outside view means telling your customer that his product sucks (when it's not your business to do so in the first place), then a Apple is no worse off owning their own ad agency.

I see advertising like modelling. You are paid to promote a piece of clothing on stage, you do it to the best of your ability, regardless of any misgivings you may have. It's not the model's place to tell the designer how her designs could be improved.

Same with advertising. You give your customer what he wants. You can offer your own suggestions, but if they don't like it, you listen to them and don't insist on pushing your own stance. That just strikes me as needlessly arrogant. I am surprised Apple has stuck with them as long as they did.

That's not how advertising works, especially good advertising.

 

[Abazigal]

That's not how advertising works, especially good advertising.

Well then, maybe that's how advertising ought to work. Apple gave their advertising firm too much leeway and the result were rather boring and lackluster advertisements.

 

[D-Dave]

My gut feeling is this likely to end badly for Apple if Apple is bringing actually advertising in house. It immediately removes the "outside" view of the company by creating a bubble. Hopefully they will at least separate from any Apple campus.

Exactly what I was thinking. Considering how cheesy a lot of on stage presentations have been lately and how stereotypical and the vocabulary has become, I fear that every new button added will soon be magical and beautyfully crafted

People with a different perspective are very good for marketing, well, as long as apple still wants to sell it's products to non apple employees that is...

 

[Chupa Chupa]

So all these people are saying Apple design and marketing has become crap since Jobs died?

Well certainly too soon to be critical of post-Jobs design. Apple hasn't really pushed out any pure Cook era products yet. Yes, the new iMac and MP, but its likely Jobs had some hand in those as planning for those takes years from idea to manufacture ramp up. The iPhone 6, which will be the first all Cook product, suggests design is doing fine though, if the leaked illustrations are genuine.

On the ad side OTOH we haven't seen anything memorable or iconic post-Jobs, at least on the positive side. We have seen those awful ads that aired during the 2012 Olympics. Everything else has been "OK," but hardly memorable; nothing in the league of "Think Different", "Mac vs PC", or the technicolor iPod ads.

 

[winston1236]

It sounds like rather than innovate and make better products they choose to bash the ad agencies trying to sell their products. I'm not sure how thats supposed to help. And everyone knows the only reason someone would work in-house instead of an agency is because they weren't good enough to get hired at an agency. This seems like a foolish plan by Apple.

 

[Larry-K]

Well then, maybe that's how advertising ought to work. Apple gave their advertising firm too much leeway and the result were rather boring and lackluster advertisements.

Quite the contrary, the client's usually myopic, and rarely that creative. Everything Apple has ever done, was signed off on, by some corporate executive, It's a collaborative process.

If you're smart, you'll hire people that know their jobs better than you do.

"Yes Men" aren't what you should be looking for, but if you want them, there's no shortage of them. Apple ought to find a thousand of them without too much trouble.

 

[zipa]

Would you rather pay an ad company looking to make a profit, and doesn't understand your business, or would you rather pay your own guys internally, who you can train in your culture, and keep the profit yourself?

Unless I am in the marketing business, then yes, I would definitely pay an agency and let my people worry about focusing on my core business, or managing and supporting the people that are focusing on said business.

If VW can pull of their advertising magic using outside agencies, then so can everybody else.

 

[zipa]

In october tell to the same dude to start writing an email on the phone and then continue writing it on his pc. Then ask him to answer the phone on the same pc, while the phone is charging, while happily dropping files and contents among your devices without issues. Those features are much more useful than submerging a phone in water... or wine!

He can already do all of that, no need to wait for October.

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We see companies like RIM, Nokia, Motorola come and gone, while Apple just keep on going and going.

Umm, what? Nokia has been around for 150 years or so. Let's check back on Apple in the 23rd century, shall we?

 

[freediverx]

Steve was heavily involved in marketing and design as CEO, so I'm not suprised we see a qualitative decline in these two areas.

How has Apple declined in design?

 

[freediverx]

I was at dinner with 15 people the other night and the next iPhone came up. A friend of mine pulled out his Galaxy S5, submerged it in a glass of water, pulled it out and it was completely fine.

Considering all the cheap plastic they use, did it also float?

 

[69650]

Phil Schiller is like a fish out of water without Steve to hold his hand. They don't need a 1000 advertising people, they just need a Marketing VP with vision and balls. Time they made a change IMO.

 

[mrxak]

Unless I am in the marketing business, then yes, I would definitely pay an agency and let my people worry about focusing on my core business, or managing and supporting the people that are focusing on said business.

If VW can pull of their advertising magic using outside agencies, then so can everybody else.

You still need exactly the same number of people in Apple dealing with the ad people, whether those ad people are at an outside agency or an internal one. The benefits of an internal one are cost efficiency and cultural immersion.

 

[zipa]

The benefits of an internal one are cost efficiency and cultural immersion.

No. It might be a bit cheaper to in-house, although that would imply that Apple has a constant number of ad people contracted at all times throughout the years. Which I don't believe, since advertising is highly seasonal, but you still need to pay your own employees every day of the year. It is definitely more cost efficient and agile to use an external agency. No fixed costs, very easy to do reductions if/when needed.

As for the cultural immersion part, I can't really see that as a benefit either. You don't want your ads to speak the company jargon, so to speak. Advertising is always viewed with an outsiders eyes and reflected upon an outsiders view and opinion of the company. That is what you want to target with your ads, not some "inbred" company concept that might not mean anything to an outsider.

 

[mrxak]

Only Apple talks Apple. There's been a lot of tone deaf ads out of TBWA that clearly don't understand Apple.

As for seasonal fluctuations in advertising needs, Apple's 1000 may just be the baseline, and Apple can hire additional outside help when they need it.

 

[zipa]

Only Apple talks Apple. There's been a lot of tone deaf ads out of TBWA that clearly don't understand Apple.



As for seasonal fluctuations in advertising needs, Apple's 1000 may just be the baseline, and Apple can hire additional outside help when they need it.

Maybe. I still can't see any benefits here.

And how do they expect to attract any talent? Why would a top grade ad guy want to work for a tech company, where they will be treated like 3rd class citizens as opposed to, well, a company that actually makes it's profits from advertising?

 

[mrxak]

The benefit is seen in surveys of chief marketing officers, where they report ad agencies are slow to adapt to new media and changing marketing conditions and are generally inefficient. It's hard to know who's accountable with an outside ad agency, too. There's a growing dissatisfaction with ad agencies across the board.

Not everyone wants to live in NY. I doubt Apple will treat their advertising guys like 3rd class citizens. Apple workers tend to be pretty happy regardless of their position.