According to the Advertising Age, Chrysler decided to move the Jeep account back to BBDO, Detroit immediately. The news is as official as it can be, a spokeswoman of the Detroit automaker confirming the decision. In addition, Chrysler has already told select dealers about the shift.
Back in 2007, BBDO lost Jeep's national and regional creative account to Omnicom Group sibling Cutwater, San Francisco. The decision was taken after the marketer of the automaker invited some of the company's shops to pitch.
Chrysler had spent $330 million in measured media on the Jeep brand in the first year of the collaboration with Cutwater. However, in 2008, the worst U.S. new-vehicle sales in the industry since the early 1980s were recorded and Jeep's ad budget was severely cut down. Therefore, Chrysler spent just $108.6 million on Jeep's commercials in the first 10 months of last year, while in 2007, the Detroit automaker invested $244 million in ads, TNS Media Intelligence reported.
Almost needless to say, Chrysler made the move "to maximize our efficiencies and effectiveness of our efforts going forward," said Steve Landry, senior VP-North American sales, marketing, and Mopar parts and service.
The reasons of the replacement are not yet known and Cutwater founder Chuck McBride refused to comment. Moreover, a spokesman for BBDO refrained from comments as well, so Chrysler is the only one to supply us with further details should they desire it.
Last year, Jeep didn't score satisfying sales with 333,901 units sold in the U.S. , meaning an almost 30 percent drop from 2007 when it sold 475,237 vehicles. Although we're pretty sure Chrysler doesn't blame Cutwater for the poor sales, something must have gone wrong in their almost 2-year relationship.
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