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Young & Rubicam has finally done it. It’s taken a decade of

near-military planning but this week the agency landed the lion’s share

of the mammoth Ford account, scooping the Ka and Fiesta across Europe.

For Ogilvy & Mather - until yesterday Ford’s lead agency - the news is

nothing less than devastating.

Tom Bury and Richard Pinder, O&M’s deputy chairman and managing director

respectively, learned the gloomy news on Tuesday morning - Y&R having

been informed on Monday evening. The switch came just days after Y&R won

the pan-European launch of the Focus, the successor to the key Escort

marque (±±¾©Èü³µpk10, 10 July).

Y&R’s crusade began in 1988 when the agency hired John Banks, the former

head of Ford at O&M. Until then, the agency had a dubious claim on the

Ford advertising business: it handled the massive direct marketing

account through its subsidiary, Wunderman Cato Johnson, and had a

foothold on the above-the-line work via its German agency. But nothing

else.

It took until 1994 for Y&R to make its first in-road on the advertising

business with a pan-European launch project which turned out to be for

the Galaxy people carrier. At the time, an O&M executive dismissed the

news as a mere irritation: ’Every time we’ve been forced into a

competitive situation with Y&R, we’ve beaten it. Ford had to give Y&R

something and this assignment is 90 per cent direct marketing.’

Foolish words. The Galaxy launch was a triumph - and O&M was under

attack.

Since then, Y&R has launched the Puma - for which it created the much

lauded commercial featuring Steve McQueen - and is currently creating

advertising for two European launches, the Cougar and the Lincoln, both

gained without a pitch. In 1997, Y&R made an almost successful bid for

the Ka account with an appealing idea based on the cult movie, the

Italian Job. Then came the Focus triumph.

The bitter irony for O&M and its executive creative director, Patrick

Collister, is that the agency has played a vital part in the renaissance

in Ford’s advertising. Before 1995, the account had been a creative

wasteland.

Y&R’s Galaxy launch upped the ante. O&M responded, hiring Leon Jaume to

boost creativity on the account and, under Collister’s leadership,

created the innovative ’faces’ campaign for the Fiesta and the

distinctive ’what do you’ commercials for the Escort.

However, during this time, O&M was plagued by cock-ups of its own

making.

First there was the sensational 1996 blunder when white faces were

superimposed over black ones in a below-the-line campaign; then, earlier

this year, a spoof of the Full Monty was pulled because it failed to

include the requisite black actor. Finally, the agency allowed that Ka

football boot ad on air. Senior agency executives privately admitted the

ad was a mistake and it was re-edited last month. Ford was said to be

furious. The agency was further damaged by the departure of Jaume and

his creative colleague on Ford, Billy Mawhinney, in the same week

(±±¾©Èü³µpk10, 23 January).

At the same time, O&M has been battling to restructure its Ford

operation in the image of its client, which is taking an increasingly

pan-European stance. Ford of Europe posted appalling results in 1996. It

has since tightened its grip on advertising. Ian McAllister, Ford UK’s

chairman, now works closely with his colleagues in the major markets in

the pursuit of pan-European campaigns.

Against this landscape, Y&R’s track record for spotless and highly

successful pan-European launches - the Galaxy, Puma and the

soon-to-launch Cougar - is in its favour.

Y&R

Ford branding

Ka Fiesta

Focus (autumn ’98 launch)

Cougar (January ’99 launch)

Galaxy

Puma

Explorer

Windstar

Lincoln

Corporate styling for all advertising

O&M

Mondeo

Commercial vehicles

Ford dealership

Escort (phased out by 2000)..TX.-

THE BATTLE FOR FORD

1988: Y&R recruits John Banks

September 1994: Y&R wins launch of Galaxy

February 1996: Ford blames O&M for racial gaffe in a below-the-line

campaign November 1996 O&M launches the Ka

February 1997: Ford appoints O&M to handle the pounds 13 million

dealership account

March 1997: Y&R wins pitch against O&M for Puma launch

September 1997: Y&R given pounds 30 million pan-European Cougar launch

without a pitch

March 1998: Ford pulls an ad based on the Full Monty in a bid to avoid

race row

January 1998: O&M’s creative heads on Ford, Leon Jaume and Billy

Mawhinney, quit

February 1998: O&M creates the ’football boot’ ad for the Ka

May 1998: O&M hires Malcolm Gaskin and John Kelley to look after Ford

creatively

July 1998: Y&R nets Focus launch.