General Motors will consolidate its worldwide creative advertising for Chevrolet under a newly formed venture run by two large conglomerates in a bid to slash costs and unify the global message behind its flagship brand. Click below to find out more.
Two agencies that already perform much of Chevy’s creative work — Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and McCann Erickson Worldwide — will combine under an entity called Commonwealth to handle the brand’s advertising for most markets around the world, GM said today.
Goodby Silverstein & Partners of San Francisco, which has been Chevrolet’s main U.S. ad agency since 2010 and architect of the “Chevy Runs Deep” campaign, is owned by OmniCom Group.
McCann Erickson Worldwide of New York, owned by Interpublic Group, is Chevrolet’s largest advertising agency overseas.
GM global marketing chief Joel Ewanick said the January consolidation of the automaker’s media-buying duties, combined with the expected savings from streamlining the Chevy creative work, will save $2 billion in marketing costs over five years.
Some of those savings will go back into the marketing budget and some will flow to the bottom line, he said in a statement.
“This is the first time that two large marketing communications holding companies have come together to form a single company,” Ewanick said. “Commonwealth will be based right here in Detroit, and its only focus will be on strengthening and growing Chevrolet into an iconic global brand.”
The new agency will be overseen by an eight-person advisory board to “ensure consistent global branding across the diversity of local markets,” GM said in a statement.
Offices in Detroit, Milan, Mumbai and Sao Paulo will serve as key marketing hubs.
The move promises to rearrange billions of dollars in advertising work around the globe.
GM’s global advertising budget rose 5 percent last year to $4.48 billion, according to its annual report filed last month.
The automaker doesn’t break out ad spending by brand, but Chevy accounted for more than 60 percent of U.S. unit sales in 2011.
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