With fear of a double-dip recession on the minds of auto industry executives, drastic methods are being taken that have sent shock waves through the once steady world of auto advertising. Where size and experience once guaranteed an advertising agency’s future business with automakers, now the same automakers are planning to shake things up as sales numbers continue to flounder when in contrast to those of previous years. According to Automotive News, there’s a $ 600 million media spending turnaround on behalf of 3 major automotive brands, and it’s all about swapping ad agencies.
When in a crisis, the auto advertising
Agency consultant David Beals shows us the ongoing shift in auto advertising has never occurred on such a large scale before, but the shift is indicative of just how bad profit margins are for big automakers. Take GM for instance, who dumped the Chevrolet agency Publicis for Goody Silverstein and Partners and moved its $ 270 million Cadillac auto advertising platform from Publicis-backed Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty to Minnesota-based Fallon. Considering that Chevrolet and Cadillac are the only keys to GM’s recovery, the auto advertising changes are huge.
Growth might accelerate at all costs
Anything that can be done to increase sales has to be done first on the minds of auto executives. And changes are happening fast. Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty didn’t find out that they were fired until the story ran in Advertising Age. BBH’s CEO who is Greg Anderson, said in a statement that his business was “extremely surprised,” to say the least. Doner, a Michigan-based agency, knows just how much change can hurt. Mazda zoom-zoom-zoomed its $ 200 million-plus business elsewhere just last week which is down to $ 152 million in 2009 due to the recession. Other shifts in auto advertising from the beginning of this year include Volkswagen (from MDC’s Crispin Porter and Bogusky to Interpublic’s Deutsch) and Mitsubishi (Cimarron Group’s Traffic to Omnicom’s 180 in Los Angeles), as reported by Automotive News.
Discover more data here:
Automotive News
autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100628/RETAIL03/100629855/1018
Bloomberg Businessweek
businessweek.com/autos/autobeat/archives/2010/06/_not_even_two_months.html
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