Open Audi-tion By David Kile

Agencies across the country poised to chase the $30-mi1lion Audi of America account that was put into review last week won't have incumbent DDB Needham to contend with, with Audi havin

In a staff memo, DDB Needham Worldwide chairman Keith Reinhard said, “We have been informed by Audi of America that DDB Needham would not be included . . . ” in the review. As expected (ADWEEK, March 22), Audi chief Gerd Klauss last Tuesday informed incumbent DDB Needham Chicago that he was calling for a review of the account. Later in the week DDB Needham Chicago president Susan Gillette flew to New York to meet with management–all the way up to Bruce Crawford, chief executive of DDB Needham parent Omincom–to decide whether the agency would attempt to defend the business, or put all its resources behind the Volkswagen brand. Fdauss, though, apparently made up DDB executives’ minds for them.
Among the agencies expected to be leading contenders in the review are Ammirati & Puris; Lord, Dentsu & Partners; and Tatham Euro RSCG. A darkhorse could be London-based Bartie Bogle Hegarty, which handles Audi in the U.K. work for which it is widely praised. Though it has only one office, BBH is capable of handling multinational clients and has created Levi Strauss jeans ads which run in 22 countries.
TBWA president Dick Costello said last week that he would not compete against fellow Omnicom agency DDB. But with DDB now out of the running, TBWA has become free to try and keep Audi in the Omnicom fold. Though TWBA has Nissan in Europe, that did not prevent the agency from recently going ahead and pitching BMW.
Reached late Friday DDB Needham chairman Keith Reinhard said, “they had come to the conclusion that was needed for Audi is change. But,” he added, “1 would have gone for it if there was just a 5 percent chance.”
DDB handles VW in 25 international markets, with an estimated $320 million in total billings, and Audi in 19 markets, with an estimated $70 million in billings.
The pressure on DDB on both accounts comes from slumping worldwide sales, especially in the U.S., and a slew of new faces at VW in the U.S. and in Germany. In the last year Klauss took over the reins at Audi of America after a long stint at Mercedes-Benz. And Tom Shaver took over the VW division after years at General Motors–most recently working for Saturn Corp. Both still report to Volkswagen of America president Bill Young. Ferdinand Piech recently took over as chairman of VW AG, and hired GM’s cost cutter extrordinaire Ignacio Lopez to be his No. 2 executive. Lopez tried, unsuccessfully, to get his hands on GM’s U.S. advertising expenditures. But at Volkswagen he will likely have more success, putting financial pressure on DDB and VW’s other agencies, to go along with the creative pressure.
Copyright Adweek L.P. (1993)