No. 2 Oiler Eyes Consolidation

ChevronTexaco Corp., the newly merged $117 billion energy concern, is reviewing the capabilities of its roster shops in preparation for a global consolidation of the two entities’ ad accounts, the company said last week.

The second-largest oil company in the U.S. has formed an internal committee, which met last week to discuss how to handle more than a dozen ad agencies worldwide that previously worked with Chevron and Texaco separately.

ChevronTexaco was formedOct. 9 when San Francisco-based Chevron completed a $38 billion acquisition of Texaco of White Plains, N.Y. The new entity is headquartered in San Francisco.

“We promised Wall Street there would be some savings as a result of the combination,” said ChevronTexaco representative Mike Libbey. “This team is one of the means by which we’re going to achieve that.”

An executive from the firm’s procurement group is leading a committee composed of members representing corporate advertising, gasoline marketing and local ads in all of ChevronTexaco’s global markets.

Chevron spent $35 million last year on measured media in the U.S. and $25 million through September 2001, according to CMR. Texaco recorded $60 million and $15 million for the same periods.

Sources at several domestic roster agencies said they filled out request for information forms, which were due back at the client the first week of December. The shops have not been told whether pitches will follow the internal review. New assignments will be made in first-quarter 2002, Libbey said. A target number of agencies has not been set.

Brouillard Communications in San Francisco does Chevron’s corporate branding and has been responsible for newspaper ads touting the merger. The shop has also done advertising for Chev-ron’s lubricants and credit-card marketing. Young & Rubicam in San Francisco has handled Chevron’s $15 million retail gas advertising.

Texaco’s roster shops include BBDO in Houston, which formerly handled the client’s retail advertising ($20 million), and Bates Southwest, also in Houston, which has worked on some lubricant brands.

Among the major foreign assignments, CalTex (ChevronTexaco in Asia) is at McCann-Erickson in Sydney, Australia; Texaco in Latin America works with BBDO and Y&R; and Texaco in Europe is represented by HHCL (part of the Chime Communications Network).