Chiat/Day/Mojo Wins American Express’ Charge Card Accounts
Chiat/Day/Mojo on Thursday won the competition to create all of American Express Co.’s credit card advertising, taking a giant step toward realizing Chairman Jay Chiat’s aim of building an advertising empire with West Coast roots.
The Venice-based agency’s New York office won the accounts for American Express’ flagship green card and its Optima card. The agency already had the American Express Gold Card account, bringing the total value of its American Express business to $65 million.
Chiat/Day won the advertising for American Express’ flagship brand from Ogilvy & Mather.
The impressive new client came on the same day that the agency opened a $16-million headquarters office in Venice. The jarring structure looks more like an artist’s dream than a corporate reality. A giant, four-story set of sculptured blue binoculars graces the entryway.
The American Express account gives the agency an estimated $200 million in business from a half-dozen new clients in the past year.
The 23-year-old company hasn’t totally escaped the industry slump, however. Its New York office suffered serious client losses last year, and several companies abandoned Chiat/Day’s troubled Australian operations in 1991.
A key to growth in today’s ailing ad industry is the ability to create great ads for very visible clients. “The American Express card is an incredibly well-known icon,” Chiat said. “The only other form as recognizable is the shape of the Coke bottle.”
Still, the agency will have its hands full. American Express’ earnings have been falling, in part because of big losses in its Optima card unit. At the same time, rival cards are stealing business from its flagship green card.
It is not unusual for a struggling company to change agencies. But a new agency isn’t always the answer, analysts say.
“Will the problem be cured by advertising?” posed Alan J. Gottesman of the investment firm PaineWebber Inc. “It could be that this particular product is in for a downward spiral.”
Perhaps hoping for a miracle, American Express has turned to the agency that made the Eveready Rabbit a household name. Chiat/Day also creates ads for Nissan and Reebok.
The new American Express ads will begin airing this weekend. Chiat declined to comment on the campaign, but trade magazines speculate that one ad will feature the familiar American Express card as the tail on a Concorde jet.
“It’s an innovative campaign that’s right on target with consumer attitudes,” said Kenneth I. Chenault, president of the consumer card group at American Express.
The campaign is “extremely visible,” said Lawrence S. Dietz, editor of Adweek’s Western edition. If the campaign adopts an attitude that no longer promotes credit card debt, he said, “it may help define American culture in the ‘90s.”
Ogilvy & Mather, the New York agency that has handled American Express advertising for three decades, remains the agency for American Express travelers checks and Money-grams and for the company’s IDS financial services unit. It also will handle most of American Express’ business outside the United States.
Ogilvy, which created the ad slogan “Do You Know Me?,” will also continue to purchase broadcast media time for most American Express products.
