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 very same automakers are looking to shake things up as sales numbers continue to flounder when compared with those of previous years. Automotive News reports that there’s a $ 600 million media spending turnaround on behalf of three 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. GM can be our first example; they 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 keys to GM’s recovery, the auto advertising changes are huge.
At all costs, growth needs to accelerate
Anything that could be done to increase sales has been first on the minds of auto executives. And changes are happening fast. Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty didn’t find out they had been 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 which is a Michigan-based agency, knows how much change can really hurt. Mazda zoom-zoom-zoomed its $ 200 million-plus business elsewhere just last week (down to $ 152 million in 2009 as a result of recession). Other shifts in auto advertising from earlier this year contain 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), according to Automotive News.
More details available at these web sites:
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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