Doner Wins 3-Way Fight for Mazda’s Ad Account in U.S.
Mazda North America on Tuesday selected W.B. Doner of Southfield, Mich., as its advertising agency, ending a three-way contest for the coveted $240-million car account.
Doner prevailed over GSD&M;, an up-and-coming agency in Austin, Texas, and Ogilvy & Mather in Los Angeles, the presumed favorite. Ogilvy had been viewed as the front-runner because its Detroit office creates ads for Ford Motor Co., which owns a controlling stake in Mazda.
Mazda made the announcement only hours after its executives returned from a 10-day trip to Japan, attending auto shows there. In a statement, Mazda North America President and Chief Executive Richard Beattie praised Doner’s “competitive firepower.”
The choice of Doner seemed to underscore Mazda’s need to boost sales quickly. Doner is known for ads that move product, rather than build image--though marketing experts say Mazda’s fuzzy image is one reason its sales are low. Mazda sales plunged 36% from 1994 to 1996, and sank an additional 8.1% for the first nine months of this year.
Doner also has a Ford connection: It creates ads for about 25% of Ford dealers nationwide through deals with regional dealer associations.
The announcement ended a monthlong creative shootout in which the three agencies spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to conduct research about Mazda and develop ideas for new advertising. A hundred Doner employees worked on the pitch, interviewing every Mazda dealer in North America and test-driving Mazdas.
Ogilvy tapped people from its offices in Atlanta, Houston, New York and Chicago to assist a core team of 50 in Los Angeles, which developed a series of briefs filled with recommendations for each section of the country.
The three agencies made their pitches to a panel of Mazda executives in separate 1 1/2-hour presentations on Oct. 17.
“My hat is off to the winner,” said Gerry McGee, managing director of Ogilvy in Los Angeles. “We would have loved to have a chance to work on resuscitating the Mazda brand. It is a huge disappointment.”
A representative of GSD&M; couldn’t be reached.
“We are incredibly excited,” said Doner Chief Executive Alan Kalter. Doner will be opening an office near Mazda’s Irvine headquarters, he said. “They have great cars that are uniquely styled and have a unique driving feel to them.”
Kalter wouldn’t comment on the winning pitch. He said upcoming ads will build on Mazda’s “drive different” ads, the last batch by its agency of 27 years, Foote Cone & Belding in Santa Ana. FCB resigned because of conflicts that arose when its parent acquired Bozell Worldwide, Chrysler’s ad agency.
