Doner wins the year-end ad business at Chrysler and could be in for an even bigger plum.
After suffering the potentially devastating loss of its Mazda account, earlier this year, independent Detroit ad agency Doner has landed on its feet, capturing the dealer and retail advertising business from Chrysler LLC, an account worth an estimated $500 million.
The move comes as the latest in a series of shake-ups in the automotive advertising business over the last year that have seen even some of the strongest and longest-lasting account teams broken up, notably including a shift by Chevrolet away from its partner of nearly a century, suburban Detroit’s Campbell-Ewald.
The Doner deal with Chrysler will see the Southfield, Michigan bounce box from the blow of losing the $150 million Mazda business,one of its most high-profile accounts.
Officially, the deal the agency landed with Chrysler is just a temporary assignment, with Doner putting together the retail and dealer advertising needed to clear out the unsold inventory of the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands. But it is likely, according to inside sources, that Doner will not only keep the account, moving forward, but potentially also get the big Chrysler brand account, as well.
The dealer and retail business alone would be worth an estimated $500 million annually, according to Adweek magazine. That’s more than triple the size of the old Mazda account, which Doner lost last June.
That decision by the Japanese maker was a seemingly devastating blow, especially to Doner’s Los Angeles office, where the account was based. The agency won significant kudos for creating the popular Mazda Zoom-Zoom campaign, but while offering praise for Doner’s creative efforts, Jim O’Sullivan, CEO of Mazda’s North American operations, told TheDetroitBureau.com the automaker wanted an ad partner with a broader range of services than Doner could deliver.
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It has been a year of uncertainty in the automotive advertising world, with all manner of long-time partners filing for divorce. The most notable was the break-up of the nearly century-long alliance between Chevrolet and Campbell-Ewald. That ongoing separation was finalized by the arrival of new General Motors marketing czar Joel Ewanick, who has approved shifts at other GM brands, as well. Not only Detroit, but Asian and European automakers, such as BMW, have realigned their ad accounts.
In the case of the Chrysler brand, it received divorce papers from its agency, last June, when Fallon switched its services to newly-free Cadillac. A choice of a new agency will be left up to Olivier Francois, who serves a dual role as Chrysler LLC’s chief marketing executive and the head of the Chrysler brand.
In the latter role he oversees marketing, advertising and branding duties for nine separate brands. These include not only the various Chrysler marques but also Fiat and other Italian brands. Olivier is one of the executives imported from Italy when Fiat took control of Chrysler last year, following the American maker’s bankruptcy.
Olivier, who fired BBDO, Detroit, from its Chrysler duties, told Adweek he is pleased with Doner, which has “brought a real creative flair to our end-of-year advertising that was refreshing.”