Today we have some unconfirmed reports from our colleagues at Adweek, who have been made aware of a blind RFP that various sources believe to be from General Motors concerning its Buick and GMC divisions.
Leo Burnett has worked on both since 2007, when GM ended its relationships with McCann (Buick) and Lowe (GMC) in order to consolidate its business with LB, which had already been handling the Pontiac account and has a 45-plus year history with the larger General Motors organization.
Digitas has also been working with GM for quite a while as it was one of the agency’s flagship accounts.
For the record, the client issued a sharp “nothing to see here” statement today:
“We have nothing to share. Leo Burnett and Digitas remain our agencies of record. We don’t comment on rumors and speculation or on the particulars of our agency projects.”
It has, however, been tinkering with its Publicis lineup, sending Chevy Silverado to Commonwealth//McCann just over a year ago. At the time, GM implied that the 2013 move to Leo Burnett had been a temporary solution brought on by an “unprecedented number of launches” for Chevy that year.
The fact that the RFP is blind, however, does hint at a restlessness on GM’s part. Buick debuted the Cascada midsize convertible earlier this year with a Digitas-led campaign starring Ellie Kempner; our readers were less than amused. Later this year, it also plans to launch the Envision midsize crossover, “a redesigned LaCrosse sedan” and a new encore model–all of which will require a big marketing spend.
Updates to come.