With fear of a double-dip recession on the minds of auto industry executives, drastic actions are undertaken 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 seeking to change things 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 3 major automotive brands, and it’s all about swapping ad agencies.
What auto advertising is like in a crisis
Agency consultant David Beals recognizes that 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 as an example, 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 keys to GM’s recovery, the auto advertising changes are very big ones.
Accelerating growth with all costs
Anything that could be done to increase sales has been first on the minds of auto executives. Changes really are happening fast. Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty didn’t discover out that they’d been fired until the story ran in Advertising Age. BBH’s CEO, 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. Other shifts in auto advertising consist of 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.
A lot more data about this topic at these websites:
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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