BMW awards major US ad work to one of its agencies

The New York Times - BMW of North America completed a closely watched review of its creative advertising work by awarding a plum assignment to an agency that already works for the company.

BMW of North America said on Friday afternoon that it had selected Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners in New York, part of MDC Partners, as its lead agency in the United States for national brand creative work as well as creative work for ads from regional and local BMW dealers.

The combined spending for the national, regional and local ads is estimated at $160 million. Until now, BMW had one lead agency for national ads and another lead agency for dealer ads.

Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal has already been working for BMW of North America, handling national creative projects since October. And an agency that is a sibling to Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal, Dotglu, is the longtime agency for BMW's digital marketing and customer relationship management in the United States.

Dan Creed, who recently became vice president for marketing at BMW of North America, praised Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal in a statement.

The agency in its final presentation "demonstrated a strong platform of impressive brand insight as well as memorable creative executions," Mr. Creed said.

Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal is being signed to a three-year contract.

The main creative agency for national ads for BMW had been GSD&M in Austin, Tex., part of the Omnicom Group, which said last fall that it would not renew its contract when the contract expired at the end of 2010.

The agency for regional and local dealer advertising has been Grey West in San Francisco, part of the Grey unit of the Grey Group, a WPP agency.

At one point, seven agencies were part of the BMW review. That number was narrowed in June to five finalists. Two of them were Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal and Grey West, which was seeking to handle only the dealer advertising if it was going to remain separate from the national advertising.

The other three finalists were Cundari, an agency in Toronto, and two agencies owned by the Interpublic Group of Companies, Gotham in New York and the Martin Agency in Richmond, Va.

BMW of North America is continuing a review for another assignment, to create ads aimed at African-American and Hispanic consumers. The company said on Friday afternoon that the agency selection for its multicultural and diversity marketing "will be announced at a later date."

Ads aimed at African-American consumers are now created by Matlock Advertising and Public Relations. Ads aimed at Spanish-speaking consumers are now created by Bromley Communications.

The creative reviews have no bearing on the media planning and buying account for BMW of North America, which already combines national and regional duties. The media account remains at Universal McCann, part of the Mediabrands division of Interpublic.