General Motors overhauls its agency roster—behind the decision

General Motors has overhauled its agency roster, taking away work from incumbents Commonwealth/McCann and Leo Burnett Detroit, while bringing on a new slate of creative, CRM and content agencies. Stagwell’s Anomaly and 72andSunny have been added to GM’s creative roster, in addition to independents Mother and Preacher. The shops will be supported by S4-owned Media.Monks, which will “bring a modern approach to real-time, efficient content development,” GM said in a statement to Ad Age. Additionally, Omnicom Precision Marketing Group will serve as GM’s lead agency for CRM. Multiple shops currently handle CRM, including Interpublic’s MRM. Dentsu’s Carat remains GM’s media agency. Also read: GM agency review winners and losers Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs The decision concludes a review that began in January under Global Senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer Norm de Greve, a former CVS marketer who started at GM last July. Chevrolet’s incumbent is Interpublic’s Commonwealth/McCann, which employs about 450 people in its Detroit office, while Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett has handled creative for Buick, GMC and Cadillac. Both holding companies will see their scope reduced but will retain some work. Anomaly will have lead duties on Chevy, Mother will lead Buick, 72andSunny has Cadillac and Preacher gets GMC, General Motors Global Chief Transformation officer Molly Peck said in an interview. She framed the new structure as a “constellation” of agencies, suggesting GM can “flex” assignments as needed. “Through our evaluation we selected the very best in-class agencies in the entire world,” Peck said. “And we’re moving away from a traditional AOR structure to having a roster of agencies that will help meet those needs.” She characterized the Media.Monks hiring as marking “a significant change in the way that we’re doing business.” GM brand leaders will “hold the strategy,” she said, while the creative agencies will “lead the creative vision—the brand, the look, the tone, the feel, the major campaigns. And then Media.Monks will take those assets and leverage them to reach consumers in a very fast, efficient and prolific way.” “We have the ability with their technology to be much more customized,” she added. Peck, a longtime GM exec whose roles have included chief marketing officer for global Buick and GMC, took on the newly created transformation role in April, with duties including agency relationships. As for Omnicom’s hiring for CRM, Peck said the holding company “had the best, most advanced capabilities and strategy.” “The most important thing in CRM is that we have a significant database of customer records,” she said. “And it's a competitive advantage for us that we will leverage.” Commonwealth/McCann is expected to retain some work, including Chevrolet campaigns in several markets outside the U.S. The agency has handled Chevrolet since 2012, when Commonwealth was originally formed in March 2012 as a joint venture between Omnicom’s Goodby Silverstein & Partners and IPG’s McCann to handle Chevrolet. Goodby later split from the venture. Commonwealth/McCann was behind Chevy’s new tagline, “Together let’s drive,” which debuted late last year, replacing “Find New Roads.” Commonwealth in April was recognized as one of GM’s Suppliers of the Year, a recognition based on performance, innovation and cultural alignment with GM’s values, according to a press release distributed by IPG at the time. “IPG remains focused on delivering world-class creativity, capabilities and marketing effectiveness to General Motors and its brands across the many areas of the business that our agencies continue to serve, as well as to working with the partners being added as part of this agency model,” an IPG spokesperson said in a statement to Ad Age. Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett also had a long history with GM; it began working on Buick and GMC in 2007 and it has done high-profile work for Cadillac in recent years, including a 2021 Super Bowl ad. “Publicis as a holding company does work on a significant piece of our GM business and in their various shops and agencies, they will continue to be a valued partner for us,” Peck said. Fresh thinking But de Greve—whose background includes holding digital marketing roles at Digitas—seemed determined to move outside of GM’s existing agency roster to get some fresh thinking, including from agencies outside of Detroit. Preacher is based in Austin, Texas, while Mother, Anomaly and 72andSunny have offices on the East and West coasts. Peck suggested GM’s new creative shops could move some people to Detroit. GM is also beefing up its hiring of internal marketing staff in the region. “We sought out the very best agencies possible, no matter where they were located, geographically speaking,” Peck said. “That doesn't mean that we’re moving away from a Detroit-based presence, though.” GM had conversations with at least 16 creative agencies during the creative review. “They are tired of the old traditional agency model,” one agency executive involved in the pitch told Ad Age in April. The consultant on the creative review was SnapPoint, a marketing consultancy run by Tony Weisman, a former Dunkin’ chief marketing officer and Digitas CEO. MediaLink was involved in the CRM review and was also tasked to consult on GM’s media model. GM did not do a formal media agency review, opting to stick with Dentsu’s Carat, although it is expected to move some media functions in house, in addition to other marketing services. “We're very happy with Dentsu as our lead media agency,” Peck said. Cannes Lions coverage See all of the Grand Prix winners here Top 5 Grand Prix campaigns EV market The agency shift comes as GM, like all automakers, is trying to navigate a complex marketplace, which includes dealing with a choppy electric vehicle market. The segment, heralded as the future of automotive, has experienced a rough patch as consumers remain concerned about driving range, with many opting for gas-electric hybrids of late, rather than pure EVs. GM earlier this month scaled back its 2024 EV forecast, saying it would make 50,000 fewer of the vehicles in North America than previously projected. In April, GM reported a 24% jump in first-quarter net income and raised its full-year financial guidance. Its first-quarter earnings growth was driven by strong demand as well as cost-cutting, with the automaker seeking to cut $2 billion in net fixed costs by the end of the year, including through reduced marketing spending, according to Automotive News. GM in 2023 spent $3.6 billion worldwide on advertising and promotion, down 10% from 2022, according to its annual regulatory filing. The company spent an estimated $2.9 billion on advertising and promotion in the U.S. in 2023, also down about 10% from 2022, according to Ad Age Datacenter estimates. GM was the world’s 24th-largest advertiser in 2022 and No. 11 in the U.S., according to Ad Age Datacenter rankings. (Ad Age has not yet released its 2023 advertiser rankings.)

General Motors overhauls its agency roster—behind the decision

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