It’s often difficult to discern what’s going on at TBWA’s Apple-only shop Media Arts Lab at any given time. But sources do tell us that a couple of leaders have left the agency this month: chief strategy officer Marc-Antoine Jarry and founding partner/executive creative director Eric Grunbaum.
The reason for these departures is not clear at the moment, and neither is the ultimate destination of these two executives. But they both appear to have ended their tenures at MAL earlier this month.
Grunbaum worked on the Apple business for more than a decade, most recently serving under CCO Duncan Milner. During that time, he contributed to such Apple spots as the “Everyday” campaign and 2013’s “Misunderstood,” the somewhat controversial ad about a kid tied to his iPhone that later won a primetime Emmy (the company’s second).
He began his advertising career at Borders, Perrin & Norrander and later moved to TBWA\Chiat\Day, where he worked on the Nissan and Infiniti accounts, among others. He later helped develop the “Think Different” concept that sent Apple back to TBWA and, several years later, was promoted to co-creative director of the Apple group that would eventually birth MAL.
French-born Jarry spent more than 15 years with the Ogilvy & Mather organization in Paris before moving to MAL. After initially joining Ogilvy to lead strategy for IBM and Nestle in the EMEA region, he was promoted to executive strategic director where he led planning across disciplines and accounts including Coke Zero, Google and many more. He moved stateside in late 2014 to take the lead strategic role at MAL.
A spokesperson for Media Arts Lab declined to comment for this post, and at this time we don’t have any information regarding MAL’s plans to replace the departed executives.
Given Apple’s status as one of the world’s most valuable businesses and its newfound dedication to protecting customers’ privacy at all costs, it’s understandable that the company prefers not to share information regarding the comings and goings at its in-house agency.