Marketing

‘Designed by Apple’ ads fail to impress viewers

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 24, 2016

Apple's new mission-statement ad campaign is epitomized in a television commercial which highlights Apple's California roots and celebrates the firm's famous 'Designed by Apple in California' tagline etched on the back of its products. It's unfortunately not testing very well with viewers.

Ad effectiveness firm Ace Metrix polled at least 500 television viewers who gave the latest commercial a score of 489 on its scale. That's below an industry average of 542 and the lowest score of more than two dozen Apple TV ads in the past year.

By comparison, Apple's past ads often topped 700, so the new campaign isn't as effective as Apple's ad shop TBWA/Worldwide thought it would be...

Designed by Apple in California, ripped off wholesale by Samsung in South Korea

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 25, 2013

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So if Samsung created Apple's awesome 'Intention' video (part of the new 'Designed by Apple' ad campaign), the results would no doubt look something like this...

‘Designed by Apple in California’ campaign extends to print

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Along with a host of software-related announcements at this year's five-day developers conference, Apple cleverly used the WWDC venue to kick off a new brand awareness campaign entitled 'Designed by Apple in California' and created by the company's long-time ad shop TBWA\Worldwide.

First, the company rolled out videos that strive to explain the design philosophy driving its product development and subtly highlight its California roots epitomized in the 'Designed by Apple in California' tagline etched on the back of every Apple product.

The company has now taken the campaign to print media, with a two-page ad spotted in The Toronto Star newspaper...

Apple’s marketing goes back to its roots

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 12, 2013

Earlier this week, Apple showed the WWDC crowd what could only be described as a pair of mission-statement videos. As we reported, these highlight Apple's renewed focus on simplicity in iOS 7 and underscore its famous 'Designed by Apple in California' signature.

The commercials didn't escape the attention of the eagle-eyed Bloomberg reporters who found out that Apple's long-time advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day is responsible for these videos.

Watchful readers will remember that the same agency is behind the company’s most memorable advertisements like the 'Think Different' campaign and the now legendary '1984' ad that launched the original Macintosh.

These clips are reportedly part of Apple's ongoing branding campaign and more will follow soon...

Watch this now: Apple design philosophy

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 11, 2013

Yesterday, we highlighted Apple's mission-statement ad that deals with its famous signature, 'Designed by Apple in California'.

Today, the company has made WWDC commercials available on its YouTube page, among them a minute and 30 seconds long clip.

The video is titled 'Designed by Apple - Intention' and Apple used it to open the WWDC keynote. In it, the company explains how it goes about designing its products so it's definitely worth a watch from start to finish...

New ad: ‘Designed by Apple in California’

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 28, 2016

Apple executives on several occasions during the just-finished WWDC keynote made note of both the fact that the new Mac Pro is being built in the United States and that the redesigned iOS 7 software and other apps are being conceived, designed and implemented by its team of engineers in California.

In fact, Apple's been proudly putting stickers on its products saying 'Designed by Apple in California' for years and has now even made a compelling new ad which focuses in its California design roots...

Advertising legend Lee Clow on Steve Jobs and brainstorming Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 7, 2013

Lee Clow, the Chairman and Global Director of one of the world's leading ad agencies, TBWA\Worldwide (and also its former Chief Creative Officer) is something of a living legend in advertising circles.

Advertising Age likened him to "advertising's art director guru" and he was a personal friend of Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs. This is the guy who co-created Apple's 'Think Different' slogan, the iPod silhouettes ad series and the company's famous '1984' ad.

The '1984', as you know, is now widely regarded as one of the most memorable and successful American television commercials of all time.

In this video captured at the PTTOW! summit, Clow talks the challenges of branding Apple and reveals interesting tidbits about his productive 30-year relationship with Steve Jobs...

Another Microsoft ad disses iPad’s specs, multitasking, AirPrint and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 23, 2013

Wow, that was quick. Following on yesterday's Windows 8 commercial which uses Apple's Siri to highlight the iPad's perceived flaws - such as its $499 price point versus an Asus VivoTab Smart and lack of Office (go figure), the Redmond-based software giant today release another ad along the same lines.

Suggestively titled 'Comparison: iPad vs. Windows 8 Tablet', the commercial pits an iPad 4 against an Asus Vivo Tab RT, which is based on the same ARM CPU technology like Apple's tablet. However, the software maker has been caught cheating...

Industry analyst Michael Gartenberg joins Apple’s marketing army

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

In a somewhat surprising move, longtime technology analyst Michael Gartenberg has joined Apple's marketing team, Forbes reported Wednesday. Although Gartenberg has yet to confirm the development via his Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, a number of retweets of other people's congratulatory tweets could be viewed as a confirmation of sorts.

Though details on his role at the company are slim, Michael will likely be evangelizing the platform given he'll be reporting to marketing head Phil Schiller...

Apple reveals 50 billionth app download winner

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 5, 2018

Apple crossed a major milestone yesterday afternoon, with the official App Store Twitter channel confirming the company hit 50 billion app downloads. As part of its countdown promotion, the iPhone maker today issued a press release revealing the lucky winner who won a $10,000 iTunes Gift card, good for apps, videos, books and music. Additionally, per Apple's rules fifty additional lucky winners will take home $500 iTunes gift cards each...

T-Mobile’s new iPhone 5 ad uses ‘Intertubes’ metaphor

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 8, 2013

In his now legendary attempt to criticize an amendment that would have prohibited service providers from charging for a tiered Internet structure, former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens in 2006 likened the web to a series of tubes. “The Internet is not a big truck," he famously said, "It’s a series of tubes.”

Tapping that meme, T-Mobile USA on Wednesday posted its third iPhone 5 commercial that literally depicts its network as a sewage pipe which pumps out twice as many gak compared to its rivals. The message couldn't be clearer: T-Mobile's pipes aren’t as clogged up as its competitors' are.

I'll be revisiting that commercial in a year or so to check how clogged up T-Mobile's tube gets after data-hungry smartphone users crowd its LTE network. As for the commercial, T-Mobile won the Internet for today. Your video is right after the break...

Here we go again: Samsung picks on Apple in new Galaxy S4 ad

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 3, 2013

As if it's any surprise, South Korea-based Samsung has (again) resorted to its proven marketing tactics of trashing Apple's iPhone in television advertising. A newly released commercial portrays the six-year-old smartphone as an outdated device, even by your parents' standards.

Samsung obviously thinks the anti-Apple theme hasn't run its course yet (one marketing whiz agrees). I'll let you be the judge of that: check out the video after the break and meet us in comments...