An Open Letter to Sergio Marchionne.

Dear Sergio,

Just need to get something off my chest here.

You're new to town.

And here in Detroit, well ... it's a friendly place. A good place ... to live ... to work ... to raise a family ... pursue your career passion ... particularly if you love cars! We love cars here. (I invite you to come out on Woodward Ave or better yet ... Gratiot ... some weekend night with me. Doesn't even have to be the Dream Cruise weekend ... cause your gonna see some great rides.)

Detroit accepts people into it's community with open arms. Hell ... The whole city is built on immigration of one kind or another ... whether from distant shores and borders (like the strong Arab and Lebanese communities, Mexican villages, Greek, Polish, and Irish hamlets)... or even Black and White migrants from the South who came here generations ago, up US-23, to work in the mills, and factories that supported this great Auto Industry.

People who work here in marketing and advertising ... well ... they got one of the strongest work ethics on the planet.

You think in an advertising world of shysters and barkers and slick willies ... where it's easy for any bullshitter to make a buck and name for him/or herself ... if it was just about the money ... they wouldn't have taken a powder on this place by now if they didn't love what they do and have a sense of community about it?

Like maybe it matters more to them that they are doing what they love, for those that they love, in a pretty hardscrabble place ... but, thats where the work ethic comes from!

But in the last decade ... there has been more harm done to our life here by outsiders with no more passion in their souls than what they may earnestly hope to find through their longing stares into the eyes of Ben Franklin on the $100 bill.
Carpetbaggers.

No intention to be a part of this community. No intention to help build it ... or rebuild it ... as the case may sadly now be ...

Only to plunder whatever is left of her.

Are you another one of those guys? God! I hoped not.

So ... long way around saying that I watched the latest results of your creative agency "jump ball" routine.

And so I was just ... you know ... left scratching' my head ... going this ... this stuff ... is what you sold BBDO out for? You ... a guy that supposedly gets the value of commitment ... a guy supposedly who dragged Fiat out of the ashes and back into competition ... a guy that talks all about the long haul ...

Did you really say to the invitees at your 8 hour soul-searching extravaganza last week ... "The 2010 - 2014plan at Chrysler, when all is said and done, is a commitment to build an enterprise of men and women of virtue."

And then turn BBDO out on the streets.

You threw out 3 decades of commitment ... 3 decades of values and work ethic ... 3 decades of blood, sweat and tears at the hands of an inept client merry-go-round ...

You threw all that out ... because you don't want an agency with too much power? - you favor the "jump ball"? ... all that loyalty is just meaningless blather in the dog-eat-dog world of marketing to you?

And this is what you got for it?



When all that you needed to do was give some of the hardest working and loyal troops in the industry the only thing they have truly needed ...

Honest Leadership.

You know ... under any other circumstances, think I would have stepped up to welcome you to Detroit. But there is no turning the cheek on this kind of betrayal.

No substance ... only packaging.

And that's what I expect will be evident of your newest Chrysler.

Unless ... my friend ... you put some integrity behind all the words.

Maybe you didn't like BBDO ... but make your next agency live and work here ,,, and do yourself a favor ...

Make 'em hire some of your most loyal supporters back.

Sincerely,

DMG

No great surprise.

BBDO Signals End to Chrysler Relationship, Its Detroit Office - AdAge.

And so it is written.

How you gonna beat a non-relationship like this ...

"Fiat chief Sergio Marchionne is said to favor "jump ball" reviews for assignments over agency-of-record relationships, thereby preventing any agency from having too much power ..."

Through it all, the saddest epilogue is simply that BBDO has been there every step of the way, backing up Chrysler ... back to a time that Chrysler was on the brink in 1979-80 ... and then when they were on the brink again through the 90's travesty of Mercedes Benz take-over (excuse me ... mean to say "partnership of equals" ... but I just seem to choke on that every time) ... and then yet again through the Cerberus three-headed schizoid 2000's ... until finally, it was BBDO providing the financial backbone as they floated Chrysler through bankruptcy proceedings earlier this year ... 10s of millions in arrears ... we may never know how much ...

Completing a 30 year spiral.

And BBDO did some really fine work along the way in spite of some fairly inept clients.

So, today ... Joe Garcia was forced to deliver the final blow to his staff ...

But, noone can say this was a surprise. Chrysler long ago forgot whatever it was that meant loyalty, commitment, and character.

Somehow, crisis either bring out the best or the worst in you.

Think it's pretty clear that BBDO held it's head up ...

Chrysler? on the other hand ... not-so-much.

***************************
UPDATE: 11-9-09 Breaking: BBDO Detroit to Close Doors Jan. 29th - mediabistro.com

A comment posted at mediabistro.com this afternoon:

"No job. And no severance. That's right. NO SEVERANCE. Hiding behind the legal obligations of WARN is the coward's way out. Especially after a quote like, "They have done everything they could to support our clients and their brands..."

The worst car-wreck of all ...

That old gang of mine ...

Amidst all the hub-bub out in Auburn Hills last week, and ferreting out news of GM's agency scramble ... how did I miss this ...! Kellogg Names GM's Betsy Lazar VP-Global Media - AdAge

The last of the Guarascio/Browner/Ritchie/Donlin/Mediaworks legacy ... takes the A-train to Battle Creek.

Who will GM get to take over that grand mess?


UPDATE: 11-09-09 So, what do we get??? Bring back Phil! Bring Back Phil! Bring Back Phil! Please! says some Detroit Auto know-it-all tool... who calls himself the "Voice of The Automotive World" at his blog TheDetroitBureau.com .

"Guarascio did more to shake-up the automotive agency-client relationship than any other individual when he arrived in Detroit from Benton and Bowles in 1985 by slashing commission rates, instituted negotiating media rates, then unheard of, and, most importantly making the GM advertising function more scientific and accountable. Then he retired and professionalism seemed to go out the door with him."

I suppose the first part is true ... but, as for that last part? ...

Not sure, but I seem to recall that "professionalism" in Phils dictionary had the definition "crony-ism" next to it. Anybody else recall those Conde Nast dinners where he held court?

Honestly, the only science I recall about it was, "what's the vintage? and, I'll take the OpusI. Now ... about that deal ...".

But, hell ... maybe a little good old fashioned cronyism would be a breath of fresh air right about now ... at least you know where you stand.

O' Bama ... where art thou!

Unemployment rate hits a 26 year high ...


This Blamed recession is Over!! ... ?









... still waiting (wanting) to believe ...

UPDATE: 11-10-09 Fed officials warn weak recovery won't spur jobs - AP

Home is where the heart is ...

... and since GM has no heart (musta got ripped out - at least what was left of it - in bankruptcy proceedings)...

... it's Cadillac advertising business isn't coming home (to Detroit anyway) ... after having been hijacked to Boston for past 3 years ... McCann Out of Running for Cadillac Account - AdAge.

Finding it's "Inner Mojo" ...

That's what it all seemed to be about yesterday up in Auburn Hills as the new Fiat gang briefed press for over 7 hours (!!!) about Chrysler's shortcomings,soul-searching, reinvigorated vision ... and ah-ha realizations ...

"Ralph Gilles, Chrysler's top design executive and new head of the Dodge brand, talked about finding one's "inner mojo" while flashing an image of a young woman with a full-arm tattoo on the screen behind him."


Marchionne unveils grand ambitions - freep.com

As reported by the freep ...

"Chrysler will have to struggle on largely with mildly reworked versions of its current vehicles until an infusion of new Fiat-based models and technologies begin to arrive late in 2010, based on the first presentations in the five-year plan the automaker revealed at its Auburn Hills headquarters today."

Which apparently amounts to inserting Fiat 1.0 and 1.4 liter engines in existing makes as fast as they can be rushed over here to US ... and then a revamped sports car built on Masserati lineage, by 2012 ... and then there is the RAM group who will introduce a Fiat based van as part of the portfolio and maybe ... get this ... "Ram may even venture into the business of making semi trucks, brand boss Fred Diaz said." (more here ...)

Sounds a little more like Moe and Joe got together to pull this thing together.





It's breezy up there in Auburn Hills ....






And , also this ... among the hours of testimonials up there at Auburn Hills from every corner of the company ... "Purchasing head Dan Knott talked about his plan to rebuild trust with suppliers." (... more here )

Although, apparently that doesn't extend to it's Ad Agency partners who saw 'em through the worst of times ...

(as we said, it's breezy up there in Auburn Hills - check your tattoos at the gate.)

Crain's Detroit - Cool Places to Work ...

hmmm ... Dunder Mifflin? ... Team Detroit? ... hmmm

Black and Blue

The Ford Blue Oval ... is ...



... at least for the moment.

Happy Halloween!

Your choice ...



1.) Chrysler's marketing brain ... (based on how they treat their agency)
2.) GM's marketing brain ... (based on how they treat their agencies)
3.) Federal Govt's marketing brain ... (based on how they treat anyone)
4.) All of the above ... (obvious)

... very scary places to be ...

Wren: Chrysler Is "at Risk" and We're Pitching (@bnet.com)

"John Wren appeared to be using his Q3 2009 conference call to pitch rival auto accounts to Chrysler, or at least to alert clients that his agencies — which include BBDO – may be available for work soon."

But, it's nice to know what the boss thinks of you ... he had this to say about the BBDO-Detroit staffers ...

"We are honoring the contract (Chrysler) and we will see what the outcome is and hopefully there aren’t any significant changes but if — but no matter what happens, those people (Detroit staff) are among the best that are within this company."

Nice.

(... course, that and $36 will barely buy you an oil change on your Chrysler 300 ...or Dodge Calibur ... not much left over for eggs ...)

Note: Chrysler Reviews Media Biz - AdWeek

more of ... "This blamed recession is Over!" ...

...or I'll eat my hat!

Worsening job picture fuels slide in confidence. -AP

Still wanting to believe ...

Top 10 Lessons to Learn From NBC's Failing Leno Strategy - AdAge

In the new age of Branded Integration ... here's my question ...

How long do you allow yourself to be Branded along with falling content? ... like Leno in Primetime ... no matter how good you think your Brand Integration is ... and when does it (or does it ever?) start to have the opposite affect of what you intended?

In question ... this arguably very well integrated and executed branding exercise:



Example:



Should all be good ... right? ... But ... the show sucks.

What do you do?

JWT Pulls Out of UPS Review - AdAge

Just wondering ... what would happen if all the ad agencies got together and just refused to pitch certain incorrigible clients ... like UPS ... or maybe Chrysler-Ram-Dodge-Jeep ...

you know ... just politely refused ...

"Sorry", they'd say ... " would really love to work for you ... but ... you know ... have to wash my hair tonight?!"

Who am I kidding ... we'd all just be outta work.

wait ...

they're doing that to us anyway?!

Caption this:











Sir M: Can you believe the nerve of my agency ... to just pull out of a pitch like that! Who the hell do they think they are?!! Well they can take a hike on their (bleep)ing principles ... I've still got three other agencies in there ... I'll land this bugger one way or another!!

C: (sigh)

UPDATE: 10-26-09 Fed-Up Shops Pitch a Fit at Procurement - AdAge

Tweeter-dee-dee ...

Tweeter-dee-dumb ... (?)









Search Engine Rivals To Display 'Tweets' - npr.org

Within hours of one another, yesterday, both Microsoft ... and then Google ... announced they would be tracking public updates of "tweets" on Twitter as part of their Search Engine results.

In yet another mindless incarnation of self-absorbed, obsessive-compulsive-disorderly, new-millennial behavior ...

(I know i should ...but ...) Why do I care ...?

(apparently ... we really don't have anything better to do ...)

************************************

UPDATE: ... aaahemmmm ... should also be noted ... I can now be tweeted at "detroitmediaguy" ...

Positively "EST" (?)

How to Build Better Car Marketing - ADAGE

Jordan Zimmerman ... who? ...

In one of the lameEST assaults thrown at the 'Car ad-industry in review' yet ... Jordan Zimmerman ... who? ... attempts to bottle the most complex consumer goods segment into a 10 paragraph essay on how un-adept the ad industry servicing it has been in reversing the current marketplace.

As if all the auto industry woes (... and not just relegated to Detroit, as we have learned) were simply begotten by "bad advertising" ... and could somehow be course-corrected by "better advertising"

Jordan Zimmerman ... who? ... says:

"Every automotive brand has a "best at" advantage. I call it the "EST Factor." You just have to work hard to find it. Is your brand the fastEST, the toughEST, the sturdiEST, the strongEST, the safeEST, the prettiEST or, in the middle of a fuel crisis, the smartEST ?"

Maybe one of the dumbEST things I have read recently about the current auto marketplace.

First of all ... that line of thinking is pure bullshit. That is trying to boil the essence of Brand into the simplEST jingo-istic sell points. There is no way in today's current environment that the consumer is going to plunk down $30,000 for a new car based on the one simple fact that it is any ONE singular thing.

The Brand ... has to stand for many inter-linked things in a consumer's noggin' ... and that can be a very complex place to be ... particularly as you try to change or reshape that consumer perspective of a Brand ... so they will consider it ...

Jordan Zimmerman ... who? ... he says:
"Find a sound position. Are you strongly aligned with quality like Toyota, or with design like Nissan? Or are you aligned with irrelevance?"

Last I looked neither Toyota or Nissan are having any better go of it in the current Auto marketplace than any of the domestic rivals ... well, ok ... there is Chrysler-Ram-Dodge-Jeep ...

But wait - they have an Omnicom group agency - in review ... and Jordan Zimmerman ... who? ... is from ... an Omnicom group agency (that he is founder of ...) ...

Which makes me wonder more about the aptitude of Omnicom - if this moron is out there touting the ineptness of his own agency group brethren ...

I don't know ... Jordan Zimmerman ... who? ... maybe more about IST than EST??

Maybe just another opportunIST wanting to feast on the carcass.

But I'm not ready to sing this guys Halleluiah chorus. Seems a little "off" to me ...



And ... just for future reference ... the only Zimmerman I will be listening to is Bob Zimmerman ...

Hocus Pocus!

(from your friends at Fiat in Auburn Hills...) We now turn those Chrysler's into ...





A LUXURY BRAND!







Good luck with that!

In a stunning announcement ...

Bloomberg's Radical Plan for BusinessWeek: Better Editorial ... Looks to Improve Circulation Revenue by Charging More (AdAge) ...


Improve circulation revenue ... by charging more ...

...

(wait for rimshot ...)



... brilliant.

Show us some LUV ...

Sir Marty has wowed the Finance community one more time with his most recent assessment of the global Economic recovery ... where he characterizes it as taking on a somewhat LUV shaped resurgence ... WPP's Sorrell Eyes "LUV" Recovery; Does U-Turn on Paid Content - bnet

Sir Martin says we'll see a "LUV" recovery: a Little one in Europe, a U-shaped one in the United States, and a V-shaped one in Asia. ???

You can watch what he had to say here at The Business Insider (and CNBC clip) ...



So ... I ain't quibbling ... just wondering ... hows that recovery lookin' in the WPP agency trenches ... (just pullin' on them oars ...)

(Caption this ...)












Sir M: "Christiana ... when I say I LUV you ... clearly I do not mean it in the Financial sense of things ..."

C: "Marty ... just shut up and start worrying about your own "little italicized 'L' " recovery ... and get off that (bleepin') Blackberry.

Chrysler and BBDO Said to Be Parting Ways in 2010

(as reported by AdAge this morning ...)

So .... this, unfortunately, can't be any great surprise to anyone here in Detroit?

Pending questions:

What happens to PHD as the standing media AOR? Noone can expect that in it's current configuration it could continue to exist?

Does Chrysler-Dodge-RAM-Jeep take the business right out of the market? ... as did Cadillac to Modernista (now on the lam), or GM Corp to Deutch?

Julie theorizes.

(formerly titled: " Points on a roundtable (?) ... from an oblong mind."??? - admittedly sucked.)

I was making the usual rounds of my blogroll last week ... Adscam (with George Parker) ... AutoExtremist (with Peter DeLorenzo) ... JulieRoehm: Marketing Strategy Consultant (with Julie Roehm ... I immediately note her blog needs a catchier name ...) ... and there I found Julie yakking up a "round table" discussion she is apparently holding at the iMedia summit in Vegas later this week.

In her blog post she is wanting to tackle the burning subject of why Digital ad spend is growing at such a slow rate ... relative of course to how much time we all must be spending on Digital vs other mediums ...

She postulates:

"I have some theories about why clients and their agencies don’t allocate more spending to digital including:
1. comfort with what they know…TV
2. lack of control over the content on the internet
3. fear of the unknown ..."

(Couldn't have anything to do right now with the fact that they are not spending money at same clip - and in fact at a declining rate - in almost all mediums except digital - because of something called the economy ...).

So ... I commented ... (You can read the whole diatribe here ...) because ... hell ... I've got my own theories.

And, somehow think that simplifying the argument to the above 3 points is ... well ... just not all that "strategy consulting" of a notion.

I mean ... everything with the exception of what shows up on paper or newsprint these days is digital media ...

In the Auto sector alone ... online ad spend as percent of mix is easily over 20% at Tier 1 and quickly growing to +15% or more at Tier 2. Relying - as Jules has done - on an AdAge report based on 2 yearold data from TNS (universally recognized as flawed data) that claims "digital" is at or less than 5% of total media mix ... well ... just seems to be twisted up in the old noodler.

But lets just take one simple fact as a linchpin to this rant ... eMarketer just published the finding that Total clickers of online display ads on the internet has fallen from 32% to 16% in the past 2 years. And ... of those ... the large majority of "clickers" are now deemed to be light clickers.

So maybe ... for arguments sake ... there just isn't that much stuff that the general population of internet (digital) users are finding relevant to interact with.

I mean ... my microwave is digital for crissake ... and I find that it provides much more satisfying content than anything I can click on from an advertising standpoint online. So maybe I should just spend more time with it!

Maybe ... just maybe ... (in my Suessian logic) ... the round table discussion ought to center on how it is that the fastest growing medium in the past decade (internet) ... and on a faster trajectory upward as a percent of total media mix than any medium EVER ... is just not delivering on the total promise.

You want more spend? Than give me an argument stronger than "everybody is spending more time with digital media".

EVERY medium is becoming digital. Talk to me about ENGAGEMENT with my advertising ... and why that just doesn't necessarily seem to be so ENGAGING online ...

Or maybe it is ... we just don't KNOW it. Maybe ... just maybe ... the digital industry should grow it's brain just a little bigger and figure out how to measure and demonstrate engagement - beyond click-through - as a measure of higher brand involvement???

Or maybe the roundtable could discuss some other things I mentioned to Jules in my comment ... (which btw was screened for 2 days before she finally allowed it to be posted on her site - with a response ... but thats ok ... at least she did.)

Happy Conferencing.

What changes are coming?

Lets ask Julie ...

(ah, no need ... she has already covered the base ... click on it here)

Got to love it when Jules gets up on the high horse, though ...

"Question: Where will the next disruption come from?

Roehm: Congress, I fear. Recently, senator John D. Rockefeller, iv, opened hearings on “Rethinking the Children’s Television Act for a Digital Media Age.” Being a mother of two wonderful children, I fully support limiting the content they consume on the computer or any other device including television or my iPhone. However, I want to be the one to discuss the content, the pros and cons of the Web, the dangers, and the great opportunities. And call me crazy, but I am not interested in Congress or any other branch of my government making those decisions on my behalf, not only because it seems to be against the very idea of freedom that this country was founded on, but also because there is very little about the Web, e-commerce, and media that is understood by the decision-makers in our government. Ignorance is not the platform for decision-making."

Well ... nuff said ...

SMYLES ... all around ...

(click here)

I could be wrong ...

but ... Somehow I just don't think old Sam Walton would have approved of this expansion by the people who now run his company ...

Walmart near Va battlefield challenged -AP

Something tells me ... maybe this one time ... he might have set aside "the progress of man" ...

Reload ...

WPP ought to just retitle itself WTF ...

Ford Tells WPP to Stay Away From Chrysler's Review - AdAge.

(Now it gives WPP beanies something else to do ... like count the number of remaining toes on their foot ...)


Caption this:











Sir Marty: "what the f**k was I thinking??"

"Marty, we are on Holiday! Let the morons back at the office figure that out! Put the phone AWAY!"

Social Media ... Zen and the art of Twittering ...

OK - I picked up on this choice site from reading AdScam (George Parker finds all the best s**t) ...

methinksdifferent.com

Hillarious!

(DMG is thinkin' ... maybe audio blog ??)