Image via Bloomberg
Bloomberg has published an interesting look at audience responses to Apple’s recent in-house advertising efforts compared to ads produced by the company’s long-time agency partner TBWA Media Arts Lab. As you can see from the graph above, Apple’s two most popular recent ads were both outsourced, though the in-house “Chicken Fat” (or “Strength,” as Apple called it) manages to come in at a close third. The data doesn’t include the company’s latest ad, “Parenthood…”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTjejvnBJfU]
“Strength” is Apple’s highest-rated in-house ad
Interestingly, while Apple’s in-house efforts seem to be mostly lower-rated than those from TBWA\Media Arts Labs, the lowest-rated ad of those examined was actually one of TBWA’s own: the “Intentions” video first played at WWDC 2013. While the video was never actually turned into a television ad, it was published online and displayed during multiple Apple keynotes:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZmIiIXuZ0]
Of the ads that actually hit the airwaves, the least favorite is Esa-Pekka Salonen’s entry in the “Your Verse” campaign, which follows the composer as he creates music using a variety of apps on his iPad. After that, the next-lowest in-house ad is the company’s 2013 holiday ad, followed by what looks like a near-tie between the second recent “Your Verse” ad and the Bryan Cranston-narrated “Pencil” iPad Air spot.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4msNKgRQDc]
Apple certainly has its work cut out for it if it plans to continue moving advertising in-house. While they’ve managed to nearly catch up to the popularity of TBWA-produced ads with the most recent iPhone spot, the rest of the lineup still points to a company in need of some serious advertising help.
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Intentions was and is one of my favorite spots
Apple has billions of dollars. Why don’t they go sign up with some other ad agency? I liked their former 30 second ads more than I like their minute long story ads. However, I did like the Intensions, Your Verse, and the Pencil ads; they were very creative and stylish.
chicken fat is from tbwa/media arts lab..
I absolutely agree that intensions was my favorite. No product, no competition, just who apple says they are and why. Simple and sweet. Gigantic was definitely my least favorite.
Who the heck is Ace Metrix and are they reliable? Or do we only know about them because they report low scores for Apple ads?
The “chicken fat” commercial is my favorite of the bunch by a long shot. All the others are sickeningly mawkish or smug. While well made, I can barely stand seeing them more than a few times. The “chicken fat” one on the other hand brings a smile to my face every time.
“Intentions” is a great ad I agree, but it seems geared more towards inner Apple employees like the “Crazy ones” commercial to inspire and encourage in a post Jobs age, than as a message to the masses,
It is possible that not every ad is a hit but if Apple keeps working at it they can come up with some good ads at some point. Advertising is not easy and coming up with fresh ideas is even harder. Apple just has to aim for consistently decent ads and in the long run it should pay off.
Boy, this is squeezing a lot of juice out of a few data points. If you play a few quick stats tricks, it isn’t clear at all. For instance, discard the highest & lowest – oops, they were both TBWA, leaving just one to compare against in-house equally higher & lower. Then, ‘Intentions’ wasn’t an ad, so can’t be equivalently compared. If we discard just it, now the remaining TBWA are all higher. A loose curve fitting looks like there’s an overall trend upwards, but there’s no earlier data for basis.
It’s important to point out that Ace Metrix has Samsung as a client. Seems like it would be in their interest to discredit Apple’s in-house efforts since Samsung, no doubt, relies on intel throughout the advertising industry to shape their own ads.