General Motors says a new advertising-agency consortium called Rogue, which draws from the resources of three Interpublic Group firms, will serve as creative agency of record for the Cadillac brand.
The announcement caps a months-long review process and brings together the expertise of Hill Holliday, Lowe and Campbell-Ewald to craft advertising for the brand.
“We selected Rogue because its strategic insights, creative vision for Cadillac and strong luxury and automotive experience were the best match for our global growth plan,” Bob Ferguson, global vice president-Cadillac, says in a statement.
GM previously used Minneapolis-based Fallon, a unit of Publicis Groupe. But Ferguson suggested earlier this year at the New York International Auto Show that Cadillac needed an agency with greater global reach.
“We are building an international brand, so we want agencies with capabilities that will help us build that brand internationally,” Ferguson told journalists after introducing the ’14 Cadillac CTS, a pivotal redesign seen putting the car head-to-head with global luxury heavyweights such as the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5-Series.
GM today cites Rogue’s global capabilities, depth of experience in integrated marketing and strong understanding of luxury brands, coupled with an automotive marketing background. “We wanted a best-of-the-best solution,” says Craig Bierley, director-global advertising at Cadillac.
Rogue will work exclusively with Cadillac, with a headquarters in Detroit handling day-to-day operations such as account management, social media and customer relations. Creative and strategy work will occur at Hill Holiday’s Boston office. Lowe will lead global coordination of the advertising.
GM has been pouring new product into Cadillac to support its global push, including the recently launched Cadillac ATS compact sports sedan and XTS large sedan. In the U.S., its largest market, the brand’s sales have surged 37.6% to 69,750 through May.
Earlier this year, GM started building the XTS in China, where it has ambitious sales aspirations for the brand.
The formation of Rogue is similar to the Commonwealth consortium, which brought together resources from McCann and Good Silverstein & Partners shortly after Joel Ewanick took over global marketing at GM. The auto maker dumped Commonwealth shortly after it ousted Ewanick, giving full control of the account to McCann.
Addressing Commonwealth, Bierley says consortiums have proven to work in the past and cites the interagency collaboration on Buick-GMC, where he led advertising before joining Cadillac in February.
Bierley says a key goal for Rogue will be connecting with Cadillac’s target customer through with humanity and emotion, rather the traditionally declarative, product-centric advertising of luxury auto makers.
