AGENCY of the YEAR: MIDWEST: LEO BURNETT USA -- Agency Retains Oldsmobile 'The Burnett Way' And Repairs Relationships With Other Clients

When Oldsmobile put Leo Burnett USA on notice last fall, agency chairman, ceo and chief creative officer Rick Fizdale did not storm into the office of Olds group cd Bob Welke and demand creative control of the account.In fact, Fizdale and agency president Bill Lynch did quite the opposite. With the $120 million account on the line, they left their creative team alone.'Never once did Rick say, 'I want to look at what you're doing.' There was none of that paranoid stuff that happens in this business,' Welke says.While the creatives developed the 'Demand Better' campaign that helped Burnett pull off one of the biggest saves in ad history, Fizdale and Lynch went off to rebuild communications with the carmaker and took the agency's case to Olds dealers, who were the driving force behind the review.'We had no idea Burnett did those ads for Hallmark or United, and that work is fantastic,' says one dealer.Although last year was not a financial boon for Burnett - its only major win was the $20 million Fruit of the Loom business and its billings rose just 3% to $2.02 billion - 1992 was a defining year for the agency in terms of big client relationships.In addition to Olds, Burnett executives say they have extinguished fires on Miller Lite, overcome first-year jitters on Sony and bolstered their standing with McDonald's.In true Burnett fashion, no individual takes credit for saving the Olds business or smoothing rough spots on the other accounts.'(Olds general manager) John Rock and the Olds people saw a lot of the Leo Burnett people in action,' Lynch says. 'You talk about what this company is made up of and it was easy to see during that period - caring for clients.'The Olds win didn't come without sacrifices. Burnett closed its Southfield, Mich., office and moved the business to Chicago - its only full-service office in the U.S. Insiders say the move actually fits Burnett's philosophy of having all of its business under one roof.Fizdale is one of the biggest champions of the Burnett way. He views himself as only the most recent 'caretaker of Leo's company.' Other senior managers regularly quote the agency's late founder as if he were sitting in the office next door. And while the image may seem hokey to outsiders, especially to Burnett's Madison Avenue competitors, the longevity of its smallish stable of blue-chip clients tells the real story.Burnett executives are not comfortable talking to the press, and shy away from publicity that shines brighter on the agency than their clients. But they are quick to point out that problems or reported problems spur the agency to work harder.'The reports of our death were greatly exaggerated,' Fizdale says of rumors about trouble with Sony and Miller Lite. 'If anything, it was motivational. I suggest to our detractors that the more of what was said, the better off we were. The body of work across the board is first-rate. But it is never good enough. Every time we do a commercial that is great, it does nothing more than raise the bar for the next time out.'Besides Fizdale and Lynch, the current management team, which includes chairman Jim Oates, president Ted Bell, vice chairman Rob Nolan, retiring vice chairman Hank Feeley and vice chairman Jack Smith, is committed to the basics of advertising. 'It's a different kind of personality,' says one insider. 'Current management is focused on integrated marketing.' Since early 1992, every Burnetter has gone through extensive training seminars on instituting integrated corporate planning. The idea is to give Burnett a seamless integration of advertising with direct response, event marketing and sales promotion. The transition hasn't been easy, but it's worth the wait, according to the managers. It's essential to an agency that derives 70% of its growth from current clients.'The main idea behind the program is that everything has to be great,' says Ted Bell, president/chief creative officer of Leo Burnett USA. 'Whether it's a TV ad or a matchbook cover, it all has to be good. Change is always hard for an organization. But when you realize that the work you're doing will be the best no matter where it's going, people don't find it forbidding.'Although Miller dropped Burnett's 'It's It And That's That' tagline because of slumping Lite sales, Bell believes the agency is still on track. 'It's getting better and better all the time,' he says. 'This is a very powerful creative machine here. If you turn it on, it's difficult to stop.' And in an emotional win, the agency recently picked up responsibility for the piece of McDonald's business it lost to DDB Needham in 1990.Bell, who came to Burnett 11 years ago and is credited with giving the agency's work a more contemporary look, refutes the claim that breakthrough creative has trouble passing through the shop's creative review committees.'That's a point mainly held outside the agency,' Bell says. 'They are fluid, free-flowing meetings. Only one guy has the power in there and that's the group creative director. He says what will run. I can't overrule him, nor can Rick.'The executives are quick to point out that nothing is ever finished at the agency. Oldsmobile may be back in the fold, but the job isn't complete. 'There's always something,' Bell said. 'We're not finished fixing Miller, Olds or Sony.'Copyright Adweek L.P. (1993)

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AGENCY of the YEAR: MIDWEST: LEO BURNETT USA -- Agency Retains Oldsmobile 'The Burnett Way' And Repairs Relationships With Other Clients

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