Apple.
Strategy.
Curation.
Production.
Copywriting.
TBWA\MEDIA ARTS LAB. 2008-2010.
After college, I stumbled into a dream job. It was 2008, the iPhone was a year old, and the App Store was just about to launch. The planning department at Apple's agency, TBWA\ Media Arts Lab, figured they should hire someone just in case apps became a thing.
I got hired. And apps definitely became a thing.
For 2 years, I was the first line of defense for anything app-related, which eventually grew to encompass basically everything Apple did. My role straddled strategy, creative, and production; responsibilities included rigorous research, helping creatives understand which apps were good, what parts of the apps were interesting, long hours on set, and, yes, playing a lot of iPhone games.
While at MAL, I launched the App Store and the iPad, worked on countless iPhone demos, contributed to iconic campaigns like Mac vs PC and iPod Silhouettes, had a crack at rebooting Think Different, won a Gold Effie, and much much more.
Not a bad first job.
The "There's an app for that" campaign won a Gold Effie but the best measure of its success is that the phrase infiltrated pop culture.
Our ads introduced the world to apps like Shazam, which I still think is technological sorcery even 10 years later.
Making iPod touch ads required a lot of video game playing, which is surprisingly stressful when you have to do it in in front of an impatient film crew.
For iPad, we had to introduce a new form factor and position it as something more than just a big iPhone.
