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Apple’s incoming CEO, John Ternus, is set to inherit a marketing challenge from his predecessor, Tim Cook, as the company faces questions about whether its brand momentum can hold as consumer preferences shift toward artificial intelligence.
By most metrics, Cook is leaving Apple with a brand in strong shape. Data from Brand Finance, shared exclusively with CMO Insider, pegs Apple’s brand value at $607.6 billion, its highest ever. The figure represents the value a company would be willing to pay to license Apple’s brand.
Brand Finance managing director Richard Haigh said Apple has “been consistently delivering on the brand promise for years and years.”
Despite Apple’s brand valuation, consumer sentiment signals potential pressure. US data captured by Lippincott’s Brand Aperture research-based measurement system in 2025 found Apple’s “momentum” score at 53%, below Samsung’s 64% and OpenAI’s 77%. The “momentum” metric measures whether consumers think a brand’s best days are ahead or behind it.
The report points to factors that may have shaken consumer confidence in Apple’s design dominance, including a perceived lack of a “killer” AI feature, an underwhelming Vision Pro launch, and criticism of its “Liquid Glass” iOS.
Analyst Dave Mayer of Lippincott said that if AI becomes more central to how consumers choose brands, then hardware may “becomes less strong as the moat.”
Apple’s privacy strategy is one potential advantage. Under Cook, the company positioned privacy as “a fundamental human right” in its marketing. The trust built around privacy could help Apple maintain brand strength in the AI era.
However, Madison and Wall analysts wrote in a Monday note that a privacy-forward approach could be a drawback for marketers hoping Apple would be more open with data and expand advertising across services such as Apple TV. They added that Ternus, coming from hardware rather than services or advertising, likely supported a decision-making framework that prioritized a controlled, tightly integrated user experience over monetization through ads.
Apple’s marketing has set a high bar by ad industry standards under Cook. In 2025, Apple was awarded the Cannes Lions “Creative Marketer of the Year Award.” The festival said the win reflected “a culture that prioritizes creativity and innovation” and connected with people emotionally.
Among recently awarded work were Apple’s long-running “Shot on iPhone” campaign and “Ted Lasso: Fake Team. Real Partners.”
While these efforts may not have matched the fame of earlier campaigns such as the “1984” Super Bowl Macintosh commercial or the “Silhouette” iPod spot, Haigh said Apple has continued to deliver against its brand promise.
As Apple looks toward new revenue streams, Haigh said Ternus may want to step up advertising, potentially by creating a campaign that is “really innovative, eye-catching, and iconic” to reassert Apple’s position in whatever it decides is its next big thing.
Ken Segall, a veteran ad executive who worked on Apple’s account, said he hopes for a return to the style of Steve Jobs-era product announcements, which were often treated by tech fans as major events. Segall said that under Cook, those presentations “did not have that raw passion thing that Steve brought,” adding: “We’ll see if that returns with John.”
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