Rogue was the sub-agency spawned by marketing holding company Interpublic Group agencies Hill Holliday and Lowe-Campbell-Ewald. Barely over a year old, the collaborative contracts with the Cadillac brand, are no more. They were the agency responsible for such ads as the ‘American Garages‘ ad for the CTS sedan, the ‘Evolution of Luxury‘ spot for the 2015 Escalade, and perhaps most notably, the controversial ‘Poolside‘ commercial for the Cadillac ELR.
Despite all the work Rogue has done for Cadillac since its creation by Interpublic in July 2013, the Rogue-Cadillac team never seemed to get near a singular cohesive campaign for the brand. Rogue was spun off from the Lowe and Partners agency, and Campbell-Ewald, who have since merged, as well as Hill-Holliday, who took the creative lead within the new Rogue agency.
In addition to not being able to forge a unified campaign for the Cadillac brand, Rogue also drew a lot of criticism for the aforementioned ‘Poolside’ ad, particularly for its unapologetically materiallistic and narrow presentation of the American dream. About two weeks ago, Cadillac’s new president Johann de Nysschen (formerly head of Infiniti and Audi) took the helm and, not coincidentally, Interpublic announced just last week the dissolution of Rogue.
In a press release, Interpublic cited “more cohesion and alignment of resources supporting Cadillac and its continued elevation globally” drove the restructuring. In other words, Interpublic has (amazingly) managed to keep the automaker as a client through Lowe and Partners Worldwide. Interpublic Chairman-CEO Michael Roth went on to say “With the counsel and support of Cadillac management, we have recently assessed the state of our offering at this point in the relationship.”
We’ve long held the belief that Cadillac’s lackluster sales have been an issue of marketing and dealership stuggles rather than product quality, so any change pertaining to their marketing strategy is good news.
Comments
It all starts with the client…and that is a big problem. If de Nysschen can really lead and not be a cheerleader for upper management things could get better.
He is upper management. Guess he could cheerlead for himself.
Good move, Caddy ads need to focus more on the product and not so much life style. Mercedes has this figured out!
I’ve read a number of articles blaming Art and Science design for many of the sales problems. Who agrees/disagrees, and why?
The only reason I own an ATS is because of the arts and sciences theme. Same I would guess for a lot of younger owners. As the old folks die off, they need to attract the younger crowd and yesterdays Caddy’s wont work. I would like to see Caddy offer even more aggressive style choices too