Media Joins Brand Teams In Bozell Shift

Bozell Worldwide is restructuring its media department, including elimination of the top executive position.
Randy Schroeder, formerly managing partner for media at the agency’s Southfield, Mich., office, resigned “to pursue other opportunities,” said Eileen Wunderlich, a partner and the head of Bozell’s public relations group. Subsequently, the agency decided not to fill that position and is now restructuring the reporting relationships in the media department, she said.
Previously, each senior partner in charge of media for a Chrysler Corp. brand or one of the agency’s nonautomotive clients reported directly to Schroeder and indirectly to their respective brand team. Under the new structure, the senior media executives will be part of the brand team and answer to the brand team leaders. Details are still being finalized on the new structure, Wunderlich said.
Craig Yateman heads non-Chrysler media; Maureen Davis is in charge of Jeep media; and Roberta Peterman is the top media executive on the Chrysler and Plymouth brands. Several dozen people report to them, both in Southfield and from the agency’s 27 field offices across the country, she said.
The senior partners in charge of media on the Chrysler brands are responsible for media planning and buying for the dozens of dealer associations across the country.
PentaCom, Chrysler’s media buying unit, will continue to plan and buy national media, working off the strategies developed by the individual brand teams.
“The media department is now more closely tied to the brand core teams,” Wunderlich said. “The new structure streamlines the process and makes us more efficient and more responsive to our clients.”
Teams that handled Chrysler business were consolidated and reorganized into brand teams a year ago, paralleling Chrysler’s structure, Wunderlich said.