New emails highlight Phil Schiller's frustration with Apple's ad agency
Apple and Samsung's ongoing trial continues to provide all sorts of interesting tidbits of information. While we previously described how Apple exec Phil Schiller expressed concern over Samsung's anti-Apple advertising efforts, Business Insider earlier today unearthed an email string showing just how testy Schiller got with an ad exec over Apple's own advertising efforts.
The impetus behind the following email exchange was a January 2013 Wall Street Journal article titled "Has Apple Lost Its Cool to Samsung?" That very day, Schiller fired off an email to Apple's ad agency stating that "we have a lot of work to do to turn this around."
What follows is a rather fascinating back and forth.
First up, we have the ad agency suggest a number of battle plans for "bigger ideas" to help Apple reclaim its own "narrative."
Under the second rubric, it's suggested that Apple is currently facing a "1997" moment insofar as the company is in dire need of advertising to help resurrect its image. Schiller didn't appreciate the analogy in the slightest, to put it mildly.
And here we have Schiller's response. It's almost Jobsian in nature. Schiller is certainly not one to sugar coat anything.
Quickly realizing that it's probably not wise to "shock" the head ad exec at the world's most successful tech company, an apology email soon followed.
In subsequent emails, Schiller said that he saw progress with the ad agency's iPad marketing ideas but still found much to be desired as it pertained to the iPhone.
Notably, in the months that followed this email exchange, Apple's commercial efforts noticeably improved. In April 2013, Apple put out "Photos Everyday", an ad that I think is one of the best iPhone commercials ever released.
A similar ad titled "Music Everyday" is just as powerful.
