Tor Myhren isn’t a name that many people outside of the advertising industry would recognize, but he’s one of the biggest names in advertising at the moment, which is why it’s such a big deal that Apple has made him its vice president of marketing and communications. Prior to working for Apple, Myhren spent eight years at Grey Group, during which time he tripled the size of the marketing firm’s flagship office, and earned numerous awards for both Grey Group and himself. A brief look at his achievements is all you need to tell that Myhren is a modern-day Don Draper, and he’s now in charge of Apple’s marketing efforts.
Apple’s new VP of Marketing Communications, Tor Myhren, comes from one of the behemoths of the international advertising industry, where he was responsible for a number of well-known and award-winning campaigns. Myhren, 43, first joined Grey Group in 2007 as a chief creative officer for the multinational, eventually becoming president of its New York office. For the past two years he has served as Grey’s worldwide CCO. In June the agency picked up a massive 113 Lion awards at the Cannes Lion Festival, including 21 golds, and four Grand Prix titles. Two of the latter were for a campaign promoting Volvo’s “LifePaint,” a spray that’s invisible by day but can illuminate bicycles and their riders at night. The video is somewhat similar in style to Apple’s own announcement videos for new products, which mix talk about underlying concepts and technology with lofty aspirations. Myhren recently told Adweek that his goal is “the kind of work that infiltrates pop culture and gets every corner of the world talking,” and even suggested that “creativity can solve the world’s biggest problems.”