Advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding, Chicago, which could use a high-profile win in the automobile sector, appears to have had the door opened a crack at General Motors.
Sources say the Chicago shop had a recent invitation to pitch ideas on a corporate advertising project for GM. Current GM roster shops may also have been asked to pitch the undisclosed project.
GM spends nearly $100 million on corporate advertising, which has been using the theme “overdrive” for the past several months.
That work is being handled by longtime roster agency McCann-Erickson, Troy, Mich. A spokeswoman for McCann said that its relationship with the client is fine and that its corporate business is “growing.” She said she wasn’t aware of any other agencies pitching the business.
Neither a GM spokesman nor a top FCB executive could be reached late Thursday.
General Motors stepped up its corporate advertising after the terrorist attacks in 2001, when the car giant and its competitors began offering financing incentives to jump-start car sales. Those marketing efforts were increased in 2002.
FCB has been looking to get back into the car business ever since its Detroit office lost the DaimlerChrysler business to BBDO Detroit in a consolidation in late 2000. That loss led to FCB’s parent True North Communications’ sale to Interpublic in 2001. Interpublic also owns McCann. Since the sale, sources say, FCB has been trying to work its way into GM.
A rallying cry at McD’s: What’s on tap at McDonald’s Corp.’s coming global advertising meeting? Two memos recently circulated by the company’s chief marketing officer, Larry Light, may provide a glimpse.
In what reads like a mission statement, one memo explains that “to be our customer’s favorite place and way to eat, we must be the best value.”
The memo states: “Value is more than just [quality, service and cleanliness] and money. Our customers tell us that cost is a combination of money and time. … To many of our customers time is more precious than money. Money and time are important; together they are the denominator of the McDonald’s value equation.”
The other memo–apparently the result of recent “brand summits” the fast-food giant has held–sets out a new “brand essence” for McDonald’s: “forever young.” What that means, however, is not clear. It’s not considered a new theme, but marketing agencies and executives are being encouraged to think about “forever young” when working on the brand.
“We asked: Can we be familiar and modern at the same time? Can we be both enduring and youthful? Yes. … We are the world’s favorite place to be and way to eat because we are forever young.”
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The memo goes on to say, “At McDonald’s, young is the joy we bring to the very young, while we appeal to the young at heart. … McDonald’s is Forever Young. And with McDonald’s, you can be forever young.”
Can’t you just see an ad set to the music of Rod Stewart’s “Forever Young”?
The themes are expected to be repeated during the meeting slated with McDonald’s agencies, though sources say no new work is expected to be shown. Few expect big changes out of the meeting, yet all of its agencies have begun to quietly work on new campaigns in an effort to find a replacement for its current “Smile” theme.
Agilent Technologies to Tatham: Euro RSCG Tatham Partners landed the consolidated Agilent Technologies advertising account. Agilent supplies electronic test and measurement products. The agency will handle advertising, interactive, direct marketing and public relations. Its Salt Lake City office led the pitch.
Brennan to National Geographic: Jerry Brennan, regional advertising director of Newsweek in Chicago, is moving to National Geographic as an account manager reporting to Philip Reynolds, Midwest manager.
On the move: John Stepien, most recently senior vice president of Cleveland-based Nationwide Advertising Service, was promoted to president of the firm. He succeeds Thomas A. Richey, who is retiring. … Carol Motley returns to the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau as director of sales, national accounts. She worked there from 1999 to 2001.
Account action: McCann-Erickson, New York, landed ad duties for Newell Rubbermaid’s Goody Products Inc.