GM’s LeNeve weighs talent against ownership in black ad agency review
The second part of our exclusive interview

By Ken Smikle
Target Market News
(November 3, 2007) As General Motors conducts its review for agencies that will handle its advertising targeted to African American consumers, the issue of which agencies should be considered has become of the major concern.

The controversy began when it was reported two weeks ago that accounts with two current GM affiliated black ad agencies were being re-assigned. Vigilante, a division of Publicis Groupe added Buick and GMC to its current work it does on Pontiac. Carol H. Williams Advertising had its Cadillac, Hummer and GMC accounts pulled and was invited to the review for Chevy. Translation Branding & Imaging, owned by the Interpublic Group, was also invited to pitch the Chevrolet account. A review is also underway to invite other black agencies to compete.

The Rev. Al Sharpton took up the issue of GM’s re-shuffling of ad assignments away from the Carol H. Williams agency on his national radio show last week. “We’ve got to make these companies understand that we’re not going tolerate this disrespect to our community,” he said, addressing the lost of business to black-owned agencies.

At stake is the opportunity to participate in a budget measured by industry sources to be as much as $40 million, the amount GM is estimated to have spent on black-targeted advertising in 2006.

GM’s Mark LeNeve, North America vice president of vehicle sales, service and marketing, spoke exclusively with Target Market News about the pending review. In this second part of that interview, he talks about the role of minority-ownership in the process of selecting an agency. In part two of our conversation, he talks about the role of minority-ownership in the selection process.

You’re the Number One company in the automotive category, and with that comes an expectation – if not a responsibility – for leadership in corporate citizenship and the like.  Does GM have a vision of itself as a leader in this area [of African American marketing]? Should the Number One company be expected to set the bar?  

LeNeve: I think GM clearly has been a leader. I totally agree that we have a responsibility, and I like to think that we have a proven track and we want to do even better. All of this aligns perfectly with our business objective to grow our business and get more return to our share holders. If you look at the growth in the American economy, and in the automotive sector, by and large the majority of that growth is with the ethnic markets.

Now do we do everything perfectly all the time, no. But we listen and we try to make changes on fly where things are pointed out to us.

Do you foresee the day when each one of GM’s brands will have an African American agency involved in bringing those vehicles to market?

LeNeve: As we indicated in my statement, we believe that’s what the outcome will be once we complete the Chevy review and assignment to the premium brands [Cadillac, Saab and Hummer] and Saturn. We’re going to do a nice review of Carol H., Translation and maybe a couple of other diversity agencies as part of the Chevy review. I think we’ll know enough about those agencies as part of the Chevy review to make an assignment for Cadillac, the premium brands and Saturn. That’s what I’m anticipating…

That's why I got so frustrated with some of the reporting. We’re actually expanding our role here, and that got confused in the transition.

I think that the confusion comes from the fact that you’re doing the process in a way that no other competitor has done it. For that matter, it’s different than any company that’s Number One in its respective industry. There’s a way to do this that has been established over the forty years that African American marketing has been around. That is certainly a big part of the concern that is out there. Nothing about the process rings of the commitment and the track record that have been employed by so many other companies.

LeNeve: Everything that you’ve said today has made sense except for that. I don’t understand how we’re different. We’re going to have diversity agencies…

Well, as an example, when Chrysler was hiring a new African American ad agency to handle its business, it stipulated as part of its criteria that the agency be African American owned. All of the agencies that are aligned with larger agency groups are at least 51% owned by African Americans. And there’s a certification process that is well-established for determining who is minority-owned.

Click here for Page 2

Click here to read Part 1

Go to Target Market News homepage

 

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