Top ranking AMV BBDO creative teams Mike Crowe and Rob Messeter and Caio Giannella and Diego de Oliveira are joining the creative brain drain to Apple in California. Crowe and Messeter are joining as creative directors on iPhone and Giannella and de Oliveira, who devised IKEA’s celebrated ‘Beds’ commercial at Mother, as associate creative directors.
Working on Apple is a great opportunity, apart from the money of course. But it’s another blow for AMV BBDO which has recently announced the departure of long-serving boss Cilla Snowball (who’s staying here as far as we know) and star creative Rosie Arnold who’s also off to do her own thing.
It may be a double blow for AMV owner Omnicom whose TBWA has worked on Apple for decades through its dedicated Media Arts Lab. Former Grey worldwide CCO Tor Myrhen has now assembled an in-house team at Apple to match, if not surpass, any creative agency in the world.
In-house agencies are problematic because people go stale and most creatives prefer the challenge of working on a range of accounts. But Apple has enough big brands to keep everyone occupied and there’s no arguing with the client over production costs and the director of your choice. Neither are you likely to lose the business.
After decades as the UK’s top agency by billings, with plenty of creative awards as well, the new regime at AMV BBDO is faced with some tricky challenges.
Interesting to follow – people go stale in-house close to the business.