Ford Motor Co.’s advertising agency, Team Detroit, has a new CEO. The agency today named Satish Korde CEO effective immediately. He had been global client director for Team Detroit’s parent company, WPP Group. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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Ford Motor Co.’s advertising agency, Team Detroit, has a new CEO.
The agency today named Satish Korde CEO effective immediately. He had been global client director for Team Detroit’s parent company, WPP Group.
Korde replaces George Rogers, 50, who is being promoted to global business development director at WPP Group, effective July 15.
Rogers, who led Team Detroit for six years, will report directly to Martin Sorrell, WPP’s CEO.
Team Detroit, of suburban Detroit, is a collective of six WPP-owned agencies with Ford as the major client. Team Detroit is a conglomeration of former agencies JWT, Young & Rubicam, Wunderman, Ogilvy & Mather, MEC and Mindshare.
Rogers oversaw the combination of the agencies in 2006, when he was the former CEO of JWT Detroit; five years later, Team Detroit was named to Advertising Age’s annual Agency A-List. Advertising Age is an affiliate of Automotive News.
Team Detroit ended 2010 with nearly 1,250 employees — most of them in the Dearborn, Mich., headquarters, with the rest sprinkled throughout 23 U.S. services offices for Ford. Headcount was up about 8 percent in 2010, and revenue was up 11 percent from 2009.
Rogers attributed those lifts to new accounts as well as more work from existing clients Ford, Scotts, Johnson Controls Inc. and Warrior Sports. The agency had no account losses last year.
In the A-List profile, Rogers credited much of Team Detroit’s success to its ultra-close relationship with its biggest client Ford — something it has achieved while still managing not to alienate others.
“For many prospects, Ford… has proven only to be a strength,” he said. “Its profound desire for Team Detroit to experiment and constantly innovate makes Ford a brilliant anchor client.”
In September 2010 Team Detroit recorded its largest non-automotive win to date, Sports Authority, on the heels of utility clothier Carhartt earlier in 2010.
Jim Farley, Ford’s global marketing chief, said Rogers played a major role in transforming the Ford brand and its customer perceptions.
“Over the last several years, George has done a fantastic job at Team Detroit and played a key role in creating Global Team Ford, helping both Ford and WPP to globalize our marketing functions,” Farley said in a statement.
