Apple to cut marketing costs, gives priority to digital and regional ad campaigns

by Plamen Dimitrov / Feb 20, 2017, 9:34 AM

Apple to cut marketing costs, gives priority to digital and regional ad campaigns

When it comes to smart marketing, few companies can compete with Apple. Cupertino has always managed to immensely boost the sales of its devices by launching clever commercials that succeeded in enticing the mass consumer, but recently, the firm's advertisement policies took an interesting turn.

In an apparent effort to cut spending, the tech giant has decided to streamline its global marketing strategy. Apple has restructured the relationship with its long-time ad partner, TBWA\Media Arts Lab, to focus more on digital and region-specific campaigns, and less on translating large-scale brand campaigns for the global market.

A perfect example of these regional commercials is the Carnival-inspired “Meu Bloco na Rua” ad designed for Brazil, which launched this week to promote the iPhone 7 Plus in the country. As for Apple's digital marketing strategy, a quick search at the company's YouTube page reveals a deluge of 15-second videos, which are formatted with the intent to appear on social media rather than traditional TV.

Speaking to US advertising trade publication Adweek, a TBWA\Media Arts Lab spokesperson further elaborated on these changes:

TBWA\Media Arts Lab is reorganizing and introducing a new operating model to keep pace with the way people consume media and content... This will result in a reduction in areas such as localization and further investment in areas such as digital, social, data analytics, content creation and a more diverse set of strategic skills. We will also have greater integration with media partners at OMD.

source: Adweek via AppleInsider

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11 Comments

1. marorun

Posts: 5029; Member since: Mar 30, 2015

Less profit so yep cut cut.. Thing is the number 1 thing why apple so popular is marketing.

posted on Feb 20, 2017, 10:32 AM 0

2. Finalflash

Posts: 4063; Member since: Jul 23, 2013

But you can already see Tim Cook going full Tim. Like any bean counter, its basically cut costs and corners instead of actually making a product more and more people want. Keep margins high, product quality be damned. Their reality distortion field was their primary selling point, now they're taking that away too.

posted on Feb 20, 2017, 10:54 AM 5

5. kiko007

Posts: 7521; Member since: Feb 17, 2016

^Hater logic: Someone outside of who I like is doing well, better s**t on them and get angry because my life sucks, amirite? I swear you get more pathetic by the day. The fact that you were able to reproduce is even more depressing....

posted on Feb 20, 2017, 11:14 AM 5

9. NoToFanboys

Posts: 3231; Member since: Oct 03, 2015

To be fair he has a "small" point, while Jobs cared about the product themselves, Cook mostly cares about shareholders only. But yeah, haters are getting worse.

posted on Feb 20, 2017, 4:40 PM 0

10. kiko007

Tim has a really precarious position, doesn't he? As a consumer, I want Apple to be more consumer friendly, of course. But as someone who's had to answer to shareholders, I get why he runs Apple the way he currently does. Steve was great because he could tell shareholders to go f**k themselves. Tim just isn't that kinda guy sadly.

posted on Feb 20, 2017, 5:52 PM 0

11. NoToFanboys

"Steve was great because he could tell shareholders to go f**k themselves." This is what I really like about Steve, and yet he keeps the cash flowing despite that.

posted on Feb 20, 2017, 7:00 PM 0

6. mikehunta727 unregistered

Not sure why you care so much that the iPhone year in and year out is the best selling individual smartphone in the premium market, don't you have other things to do and worry about ?

posted on Feb 20, 2017, 11:38 AM 5

4. kiko007

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/apple/apple-q1-2017-financial-results-revenue-figures-apple-earnings-report-3581769/ You were saying? "Thing is the number 1 thing why apple so popular is marketing" Totally must be why Sammy sells so many phones then. After all, they spend almost twice as much as Apple does on advertising, but whatever, let's just pretend that people buy iPhones because of commercials instead of experience. I'm sure that'll cease if they cut marketing broadly, because people don't already know the iPhone exists, right?/s Go back to working your Boost Mobile job and leave the financial measurements to people who know what they're talking about, 'Kay champ?

posted on Feb 20, 2017, 11:11 AM 6

7. mikehunta727 unregistered

Apple markets less then most other companies, their products speak for themselves which is why they still remain best sellers in their category, so to many they are doing something right

posted on Feb 20, 2017, 11:40 AM 1

3. libra89

Posts: 2317; Member since: Apr 15, 2016

To be fair, does Apple really need as much marketing? Most people know about iPhones and Macbooks.

posted on Feb 20, 2017, 11:10 AM 0

8. lyndon420

Posts: 6897; Member since: Jul 11, 2012

The entire globe knows what an iPhone is, but less than 15% use one. Keeping their advertising limited to new product releases may help to maintain interest as their faux luxury branding has all but faded away.