Advertising agency Leo Burnett, which handles advertorial work for the GMC and Buick brands, is losing the Chevrolet Silverado from its list of portfolio of accounts.
While it would be easy to assume that the switch was due to the agency’s performance, Silverado sales have continued to grow at a steady pace; they were up 10 percent overall throughout 2014, and have risen an astonishing 24 percent over the first two months of this year.
Rather, there’s a much simpler explanation as to why Chevrolet is moving the Silverado over to Interpublic’s Commonwealth agency: to rejoin the rest of the Chevy lineup. Says Automotive News, when the Commonwealth joint venture was created in early 2012, it was formed specifically to handle all of Chevrolet’s ad accounts.
But the Silverado was left out, given to Leo Burnett to alleviate some of the pressure as Interpublic’s Commonwealth prepared to tackle more than 20 new vehicle accounts in 2013. Now that things have calmed a bit, the Chevrolet Silverado is transferring back to Interpublic, while Leo Burnett retains all their accounts for GMC and Buick. Said executives in a memo to employees: “The outcome for us is unfortunate. We’re losing Silverado but keeping the rest of our healthy GM portfolio.”
The memo continued: “The client has assured us that this isn’t a reflection of the team or the work. We are both so proud of how you delivered big, brand-building ideas that really made a difference.”
No Comments yet