On the heels of reports that Apple Inc. has become dissatisfied with its advertising, two of the company’s top executives are going public with how much they love a new ad by Beats.
Apple has announced plans to buy Beats Electronics and Beats Music for $3 billion. Founded by music mogul Jimmy Iovine and rapper Dr. Dre, the maker of headphones and speakers has leveraged its marketing savvy to create a hugely popular brand.
The latest ad from Beats to debut is called, “The Game Before The Game.” Though shorter versions run on television, the five-minute version is online and focuses on the upcoming World Cup. It features, among others, Brazil’s Neymar Jr. and France’s Bacary Sagna.
After a short buildup, the athletes pop on their Beats headphones and a pounding song called “Jungle” by X Ambassadors and Jamie N Commons kicks in to provide a thumping, hand-clapping soundtrack.
In other words, it’s much more youth-oriented and rocking than Apple’s recent fare, such as its “What Will Your Verse Be?” campaign. By comparison, that Apple ad is meditative and philosophical and reflective. Nothing that quotes poet Walt Whitman is likely to get you stomping your feet.
Despite the different approaches, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and Senior Vice President Eddy Cue, both huge Duke basketball fans, praised the efforts by Beats.
“The Game Before The Game. The team at #Beats captures it perfectly. A must watch before #World Cup.,” Cook tweeted on Wednesday.
“As a huge sports fan, I love ‘The Game Before The Game,'” Cue tweeted on Monday.
There’s been talk that Apple bought Beats to infuse a bit more energy into its brand. Though for the moment, the companies have to keep their official distance until the deal actually closes, probably in September.
Still, the timing of the tweets and the Beats campaign comes right as AdAge published a lengthy story this week that claims Apple is trying reboot its own marketing operations by building its own internal ad agency, and rethinking the way it works with traditional partners.
That story also mentioned an email from Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller, who runs the company’s marketing, that surfaced during the recent patent trial against Samsung. In the email, Schiller seemed to say that Samsung’s ad campaigns were better than Apple’s.
“I watched the Samsung pre-Super Bowl ad that launched today,” Schiller wrote. “It’s pretty good and I can’t help but think these guys are feeling it (like an athlete that can’t miss because they are in a zone), while we struggle to nail a compelling brief on iPhone.
