Last week, Cadillac dropped its advertising agency, the Detroit, Michigan-based Lowe Campbell Ewald, to pursue a partnership with Publicis Worldwide. The move means a $279 million loss for Lowe Campbell Ewald, but some in the advertising industry think the agency will be better off without Cadillac’s business.
CEO of Detroit-based design company Skidmore Studio, Tim Smith, told Media Post “Lowe Campbell Ewald is an iconic and creatively strong shop that will be better off without the drama that GM continues to create. They are better off, in my opinion, without the schizophrenic behavior of a bad client.”
We assume what Smith means by schizophrenic is unpredictable and self-contradictory. It’s hard to say what makes Detroit’s ad industry think so little of Cadillac, however he could be referring to the creation and abrupt disbandment of its Rogue ad firm. Rogue, created specifically to hand the Cadillac account, was a collaboration between Interpublic, Hill Holiday and Lowe-Campbell Ewald. It was scrapped after only one year of operations.
Cadillac is also going through a multitude of important changes, from the relocation of its offices to New York City to its new plan to report its earnings separately from GM. The brand has been in an almost constant state of transformation in recent years, changing agencies numerous times, and is now partnering with Publicis as it attempts to find a more consistent path and image.
“We will have substantially new marketing and brand identity work in early 2015,” Cadillac spokesperson David Caldwell told Autoblog following its Publicis announcement.
GM’s history with Lowe Campbell Ewald started 91 years ago, when the agency first partnered up with the automaker to handle its Chevrolet account. It moved its Chevy marketing operations to Publicis in 2010, and has continued to distance itself from the company in relieving it of the Cadillac account.
Comments
This could mean a lot of things.
I do believe a lot of this may be toward much of the internal fighting in GM over Cadillac over the last few years.
Lets just take a look at the changes in direction of Cadillac over the last 5 years. That is not an easy one to market even for a good firm. The New GM people have been pulling for real change and commitment while some of the left over GM people want to keep things the same. I think the new GM people have finally won.
But even with that said I believe changing firms may not be really a bad idea. To be with a company that long things can be come stale and taken for granted on each side. New ideas and thinking might help.
Lets face it the marketing of Cadillac has left a lot to be desired. I will not lay all of it on the marketing firm as someone at Cadillac had to approve it too.
i do agree about hat he is saying, but lets look at the commercials that agency has put out…
– XTS blow doors off
– ELR poolside
– multiple ATS comercials using base ATS’s (no LED, tech, etc.)
– Cadillac lineup Robot Runway
Commercials like these are destroying the cadillac name……Marketing is the ute most important thing to a company and cadillac has the product, very god products ! but there not selling……..i dont know who there last ad agency was but hey need to go back with them…..making commercials like…
-CTSV red blooded luxury
-CTS coupe Ingintion
-CTS sedan starring Kate Walsh
-Vseries line BANG !
These kind of commercial create vigor and confidence, mixed with bold design and great performance and nice interior cadilac began to flourish…i wish cadillac returns these kind of commercials