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BBDO Losses on Chrysler Are Part of a Trend the Agency Must Get Used To

By Jim Edwards

Updated on: October 13, 2009 / 12:56 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

The psychological blows for BBDO keep on coming. The agency will not be working on Chrysler in 2010, according to Ad Age (whose story contains no quotes or named sources, interestingly). BBDO insists it is still in contract negotiations. Chrysler -- strangely -- won't say anything on the record. Meanwhile, the client is allegedly subjecting BBDO's account to death by 1,000 cuts:

Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco, has been tapped for one assignment and independent Richards Group, Dallas, was given charge of the Dodge Ram truck brand. Chrysler's longtime diversity agency, GlobalHue, Southfield, Mich., was given the general assignment for the Jeep work.

To add insult to injury, the agency was recently accused of stealing its ideas for a Dodge Ram campaign.

The news comes after other significant accounts have left: Pizza Hut left after 22 years. That was a $275 million account. Pepsi left this time last year. Whiskas has also gone.

Those are the financially significant events. In the last year we've also seen some uncharacteristic slip-ups, such as the unapproved Nazi ad for Playstation 3 in Chile and the "suicide ad" for Pepsi Max in Germany.

BBDO has won plenty of business: it added the $28 million Snickers account, and the $18 million Illinois Lottery business. Other wins include Mars overseas, Starbucks, HP Printing (globally), the Minnesota Vikings and Harrah's. And the shop retains Mountain Dew and Diet Mountain Dew.

So what's the problem? For any other agency, there wouldn't be a problem. But for BBDO, the adjustment will be hard because it is losing its highest profile clients and replacing them with low-key business. Starbucks, for instance, is a great account -- but the client famously built its business by largely eschewing advertising in favor of more retail-oriented events.

I suggested in December that BBDO's New Year resolution should be to wean itself from its addiction to the big, branded TV campaigns that have made the shop's reputation. Could it be that clients are forcing that change whether BBDO likes it or not?