BMW goes across Atlantic to Omnicom for global account

In a major turnaround, BMW has gone across the Atlantic to a Texas-based company for their global campaign, said company sources.

BMW AG in an unprecedented move has opted for a US company GSD&M Idea City as its lead global creative agency for brand advertising. The decision, which is the first global account for the agency, was apparently made after a two-month long pitch.

Without revealing the value of the deal, the car manufacturer's representative in an official communiqué reported in AdAge said: "We are looking for efficiencies."

"We are delighted to have an agency such as GSD&M Idea City with the potential to set further creative benchmarks with BMW global brand communications in the future," said Jan-Christiaan Koenders, director-brand communication and group marketing services at BMW.

In the wake of the current downturn in the car industry, BMW's criteria seems to consider the economic reasons as it consolidates the business with the Omnicom Group.

There were a total of four agencies pitching for the account and since the beginning of the year this is a third major pitch in favour of Omnicom and its agencies.

HP and Sony Playstation were the first two major accounts that the world's second-largest ad group won since the start of the year.

Omnicom Group had earlier announced that net income for the first quarter of 2009 fell 21.2 per cent to $164.5 million (Dh603.7m) from $208.7m in the first quarter of 2008. The worldwide revenue for the first quarter of 2009 dropped 14.0 per cent to $2,746.6m from $3,195.4m in the first quarter of 2008.

The four other companies that were pitching for the BMW account were WCRS, BMW's UK agency; MAB in Germany; Ireland and Davenport in South Africa; and Interone in China.

The first of BMW's campaigns designed by the new agency are expected to be released in Europe this summer and eventually roll out to the rest of the world.

For achieving global co-ordination in efficient time frame, the Texas-based agency is also looking at the option of opening their regional office in Munich.

GSD&M has been handling BMW's US account from their Chicago office, which went into review last September.

The agency is a finalist with Interpublic Group of Co's Universal McCann for the business.

The BMW officials said that they are expecting a clear decision on the US account and it's expected to be expedited in favour of GSD&M, suggest industry said.

The BMW car brand spent $104m in US measured media last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence. (with inputs from agencies)

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