Sunday, July 4, 2010

Auto industry uncertainty and auto advertising shakeup mirror one one more

With fear of a double-dip recession on the minds of auto industry executives, drastic actions 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 exact same automakers are seeking to shake things up as sales numbers continue to flounder when in contrast to those of previous years. As reported by Automotive News, there’s a $ 600 million media spending turnaround on behalf of 3 major automotive brands, and it is all about swapping ad agencies.

Source of article: Auto advertising shakeup mirrors auto industry uncertainty by Car Deal Expert

When an industry is in a crisis, auto advertising

Agency consultant David Beals shows us 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 for 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.

Accelerate growth at 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 find out they had been fired until the story ran in Advertising Age. Greg Anderson, BBH's CEO, 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. Other shifts in auto advertising 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), according to Automotive News.

Discover more details:

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

Related Video:

youtube.com/watch?v=QWa8pimOUp0



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