Chevrolet has consolidated multicultural/African American marketing for its main brand with Oakland-based Carol H. Williams Advertising after SpikeDDB handled that business for more than 6 years.
This means SpikeDDB, the Brooklyn-based agency started by director Spike Lee and partially owned by Omnicom, will no longer work on the main Chevrolet brand. It will, however, retain its multicultural agency of record status on Cadillac.
“To properly align brand marketing and advertising objectives, Chevrolet will engage Carol H. Williams as its multicultural agency of record, and Cadillac will remain with Spike DDB as its multicultural agency of record,” a company spokesperson wrote. “These partnerships will allow for deeper brand focus and better alignment with diversity marketing initiatives for Chevrolet and Cadillac, respectively.”
The spokesperson did not clarify whether this decision followed a formal review.
Since winning the business in 2010, SpikeDDB has produced spots for several Chevy lines including the Impala, the Equinox and the Cruze (Sanders/Wingo had previously handled that portion of the business). Prominent campaigns include the Impala launch starring John Legend and the extended Mone Davis spot “I Throw Like A Girl.”
McCann’s Casanova has been Hispanic AOR for Chevrolet since early 2014, when the automaker moved its business from LatinWorks.
Carol H. Williams is currently the largest female-owned African American agency in the U.S., has offices in Oakland, Chicago, Detroit and New York and included Buick, U.S. Army and Wells Fargo among its clients in a recent creative roundup.