Facebook Hires Former Apple Ad Exec Scott Trattner as Executive Creative Director

Former TBWA/Media Arts Lab Executive Creative Director Scott Trattner has joined Facebook as executive creative director, the company announced today. Mr. Trattner will be managing Facebook's growing in-house creative team, currently consisting of about 15-20 staffers. Although Mr. Trattner has an agency background, Facebook will not be going into the agency business. But given his background working with a major digital and consumer electronics marketer, Mr. Trattner's hire suggests that Facebook is continuing to invest heavily in its own marketing and creative. It follows the company's recent appointment of first-ever CMO Gary Briggs from Motorola/Google in August. "Facebook's brand is unique, young and inspired by the hundreds of millions of people who connect with it every single day," said Mr. Trattner in a company-provided comment. " It's an opportunity to work with a fascinating global brand, and an excellent team led by [CMO] Gary Briggs and [Senior Director of Product Marketing] Rebecca Van Dyck." Mr. Trattner is an Apple advertising veteran who spent nearly a decade at the marketer's global agency, Media Arts Lab. The TBWA shop was set up solely to focus on Apple advertising, working hand-in-hand with the client on all its major campaigns, the process of which has long been kept tightly underwraps. MAL, was, in a way, an embodiment of the tight relationship between TBWA Chairman/Global Director Lee Clow and late Apple leader Steve Jobs. Under Mr. Jobs, who paid as strict attention to the message as he did product, it served largely as a marketing arm of Apple. During Mr. Trattner's tenure, he helped launch major Apple products such as the iPad, iPhone, iTunes, iCloud and oversaw some of the company's landmark campaigns, including the "Mac Vs. PC" effort and the evolution of the iPod silhouette ads. "Scott will be a great addition to our team at Facebook," said Facebook CMO Gary Briggs in the company release. "His previous work has demonstrated the type of inventive thinking and willingness to push creative boundaries that will be enormously valuable to us." Mr. Trattner will work alongside Ms. Van Dyck, the former Levi's Global CMO who joined the company in February 2012. Both will report to Mr. Briggs, the former chief marketer at the Google-acquired Motorola Mobility in August who replaced former VP-product marketing Eric Antonow in an expanded role leading all branding and marketing for Facebook..

Facebook Hires Former Apple Ad Exec Scott Trattner as Executive Creative Director

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