Car Maker Kia Hands Its Account to Start-Up Agency It Helped Design
Kia Motors of America said Tuesday that David & Goliath, a newly formed advertising agency based in Los Angeles, will take over its account in February, replacing Goldberg Moser O’Neill. Kia last week parted company with GMO, saying that the San Francisco-based agency lacked the resources needed to handle the Irvine-based car maker’s anticipated growth.
David & Goliath, which is opening offices in West Los Angeles, was formed on Nov. 19 by advertising industry veterans David Angelo and Skip Sullivan. Angelo has worked for such agencies as DDB, TBWA/Chiat/Day and Cliff Freeman & Partners, and created advertising for such clients as MTV, Nickelodeon and Little Caesar’s. Sullivan helped to launch Toyota’s Lexus automobile line while working at Torrance-based Saatchi & Saatchi’s Team One Advertising subsidiary.
Kia executives said they began working with Angelo and Sullivan nearly nine months ago after learning that GMO principal Michael Moser was leaving the agency.
“[Moser] was the guy focusing on our creative effort, and his departure represented a major disruption of the creative department,” said Kia Executive Vice President Dick Macedo. “That started the process for us.”
GMO executives maintained that their shop’s creative efforts have not slowed since Moser left the firm in July to spend more time with his family. “Kia didn’t raise any issues about creative when he left,” GMO spokeswoman Ruth Grossman said.
Kia’s decision to go with a small start-up surprised some industry insiders because of the car maker’s stated belief that GMO--which has half a dozen clients larger than Kia--wasn’t big enough to handle future growth. Macedo said that David & Goliath has moved quickly to assemble a team of business associates to serve its needs.
“We helped to co-design the agency over the last nine months,” Macedo said. “We’ve designed and built an agency specifically to meet our marketing needs.” David & Goliath, which is now recruiting personnel for its creative team, is contracting with other companies to provide support services.
The agency has formed alliances which such companies as Optimum Media Directions for media planning and buying; Boyd Communications for graphic design; Rapp Collins Worldwide for database marketing; DDB Promotions for special events, and Interbrand for branding and corporate identity.
“David and I have a tremendous amount of contacts in this business,” Sullivan said. “We’ve spent lots of time orchestrating these relationships. We’re not going to be burdened by the traditional frustrations of huge, monolithic-type agencies. But at the same time, let there be no misunderstanding--we are going to be a full-service agency. We will be responsible for all aspects of how this is pulled together.”
The coming year will be an important one for Kia, whose South Korean-based parent company was one of several firms that were bankrupted by that country’s recent economic turmoil. Kia, which was purchased by rival Hyundai Motors, hopes to boost U.S. sales to 175,000 cars in 2000, and sell more than 200,000 vehicles in 2001. The company will introduce three new models during the next year.
Sullivan said that Kia won’t be David & Goliath’s only client. “Kia obviously is our foundation, but we’re thrilled to say that we’ll be announcing additional clients in the future.”
Elsewhere in the advertising world, Nike Inc. said it is consolidating all of its advertising with Portland, Ore.-based Wieden & Kennedy. Nike said it was “parting ways” with San Francisco-based Goodby Silverstein & Partners, which had handled a portion of Nike’s advertising since 1997. Wieden & Kennedy has been handling Nike advertising for 16 years.
“Goodby Silverstein & Partners created excellent work for Nike,” said Rob DeFlorio, Nike’s advertising director. “This decision is not based on the quality of their work, but Nike’s desire to streamline our brand-level advertising.”
