Goodby, Silverstein & Partners began meeting with Saturn executives here last week as part of an accelerated transition of the car account from Publicis & Hal Riney.
The San Francisco agency will open an office in Detroit to service the business, said Pat Henry, Saturn’s advertising manager. It remains to be seen how big the Detroit staff will be and what duties will be handled there, she said.
The transition of the account from Riney to Goodby will officially take the customary 90 days. But sources said Riney is eager to unload the business so it can chase a new car account and is “turning over as much [as possible], as quickly as possible, to get on with things.”
“Our guys were sad to see [the account] go, and we don’t want to see people get laid off,” a source at Riney said. “What it means is that Goodby gets some of the rewards and some of the headaches of dealing with Saturn.”
Riney’s final campaign for the client is for its new sport utility vehicle, the Vue. The effort breaks this week with three 30-second TV spots to air during Olympics coverage. Print ads break in March. The campaign is tagged, “At home in almost any environment.” The longtime Saturn tagline, “A different kind of company. A different kind of car,” is absent, although Henry said it has not been decided whether that line will be scrapped completely.
Goodby won the en tire $300 million Saturn account two weeks ago, shortly after winning the Ion pitch [Ad week, Feb. 4]. The shop defeated Ri ney, D’Arcy Mas ius Benton & Bowles, McCann-Erickson and Wie den + Ken nedy in the final pitch.
Riney had handled Saturn since the brand’s inception in the early 1990s.
Sources said Goodby may have been chosen because the client felt it was becoming just another vehicle on the General Motors roster instead of “a different kind” of brand.
Goodby Planning Detroit Office to Service Saturn
