Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) continues beefing up its ranks, this time with a long-time associate of Angela Ahrendts. Apple hired her away from Burberry Group plc (LON:BRBY), and now the company has apparently hired Musa Tariq, who once headed up social media for Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) and Burberry.
Apple beefs up social media
Tariq headed up social media marketing and partnerships at Nike, working with athletes across all of the company’s platforms. At Burberry, he reportedly was in charge of social media “strategy and innovation.” Now that he’s at Apple, Tariq’s title is “Digital Marketing Director,” account to his announcement on his personal Twitter account.
Social media has become increasingly important in recent years, and this is certainly one area in which Apple has been lacking. Many of its competitors have launched campaigns that went viral. At this point, Apple has Facebook pages for the App Store and iTunes. The company also has Twitter accounts for a number of services related to iTunes and accounts for top executives like Ahrendts, CEO Tim Cook, and executives Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller.
Apple’s potential on social media
Tariq has an excellent track record in creating viral social media campaigns. According to 9to5 Mac, one of his most popular campaigns was Burberry’s Tweetwalk campaign. It shared photos of outfits that would be landing on the runway at the London Fashion Show. Statistics showed that the campaign increased talk about the fashion show and also Burberry’s products. Another popular campaign he created was the Acoustic campaign, which showed off musicians singing acoustic versions of well-known songs on YouTube.
One of his most popular campaigns at Nike was teasing a new shoe through videos that describe it without actually showing what it looks like.
Ahrendts and Tariq at Burberry
9to5 Mac’s sources said Tariq reported to Ahrendts while they were both at Burberry. The site also reports that he worked closely with her in growing the Burberry brand. It’s expected that he will also work with her at Apple as she works on building up the company’s retail presence.
