Chrysler is changing agency accounts, hoping to do better than the failed Day One campaign following its Daimler sale to Cerberus years ago.
Its relationship with BBDO drawing to a close, Chrysler has announced it will turn over its media buying contract to Universal McCann next month.
An across-the-board shake-up, which is leading BBDO to close its offices in Troy, has led Chrysler to split up its nine-figure advertising budget. McCann, a division of the ad giant Interpublic, is getting just a piece of Chrysler’s advertising and creative business.
Global Hue, an agency based in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, has picked up the business for the Jeep division – which just launched it’s “I Am Jeep” campaign. Dodge Truck, now known as Ram, has gone to Dallas-based Richards Group. And Chrysler has even sent some business abroad – borrowing and repackaging an Italian-made spot originally developed for Lancia, a division of Fiat’s new parent, Fiat.
“As a new company with a brand-driven focus, we are looking for agencies that can deliver unique ideas and solutions to help us better communicate with consumers,” Olivier Francois, Chrysler’s new, Fiat-appointed ad chief, said in a statement. “These changes will allow Chrysler greater efficiencies and flexibility in the use of its media across all four brands and at the retail level.”
BBDO Detroit will close its Troy, Michigan offices – and cut dozens of jobs – on January 26th, when its Chrysler contract officially expires. It’s just one of several recent setbacks for BBDO’s parent, the huge ad agency conglomerate Omnicom. Last May, Universal McCann also took away BMW North America from Omnicomm.
The Detroit office of McCann will handle both digital and traditional media buying for the three U.S. Chrysler divisions, as well as the automaker’s Canadian and Mexican operations.
In a separate announcement, Chrysler revealed it is turning over its CRM intiatives to Meredith Integrated Marketing, which already handles the automaker’s custom publishing.
The news is just the latest in a relatively sudden string of changes sweeping through the Detroit advertising community. General Motors has been shifting a number of its own ad accounts, including those for both its premium Cadillac division and for the mainstream Chevrolet. The latter marque plans to pull a majority of its business from Campbell-Ewald, the suburban Michigan ad firm with which it has partnered for the better part of a century.
Further changes could be in store, GM insiders hint. Bob Lutz, the automaker’s vice chairman, made it clear that the company’s ad dollars needed to be spent more effectively, when he signed on as marketing director last July. Last week, those duties were reassigned to Susan Docherty, who also oversees GM’s North American sales operations.
Docherty is a big proponent of online marketing and is expected to only accelerate the automaker’s shift from traditional advertising to digital media, ranging from the Internet to smartphones and other emerging outlets.