Apple is restructuring the way it works with its lead advertising agency

Apple is changing the way it works with its lead advertising agency TBWA\Media Arts Lab as part of an effort to streamline its global marketing output, Adweek's Patrick Coffee reported.

TBWA\Media Arts Lab's Apple team has been restructured for the agency to focus more on digital and local campaigns. It means the agency will do less work localizing its big global brand campaigns for different geographical regions.

There has been a reduction in headcount at the agency as a result, Adweek reports, although the exact number of staff affected was not confirmed. The cuts are reported to have mostly hit TBWA\Media Arts Lab's translation and transcreation teams.

TBWA\Media Arts Lab and Apple did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.

The ad agency sent this statement to Adweek: 

"TBWA\Media Arts Lab is reorganizing and introducing a new operating model to keep pace with the way people consume media and content. This will result in a reduction in areas such as localization and further investment in areas such as digital, social, data analytics, content creation and a more diverse set of strategic skills. We will also have greater integration with media partners at OMD."

In recent years, Apple has been producing more of its big global ad campaigns in-house. Adweek says the agency restructure is linked to efforts to cut its marketing spend.

Apple mysteriously stopped disclosing how much it spends on advertising last year. In its annual report, Apple said it spent less on advertising in 2016 compared with 2015.

Apple's latest ad campaign launched last week. The series of 15-second digital ads sees Apple promote its iPad Pro by responding to real tweets about the device. Here's one of the spots: