VW and Crispin Split

Yesterday, Agency news announced the split between VW and Crispin Porter and Bogusky. At first, I was shocked by this. Some of the most memorable and powerful ads in recent years were from Crispin. VW was always thought of as being an unsafe car. They disproved that in their ads by crashing their own cars - without test dummies - and made consumers remember that "safe happens." And also thanks to Crispin, anytime I see Brooke Shields I think of the Routan Boom...

But despite all that, and the fact that VW's market share did increase by 0.4% through July (making their total share of the market 2%), they had a decrease in sales by 13.5%. This was, however, a result of the over all 32% automotive market decline. On a positive note, VW is continuing to grow globally, and with that, is searching for the right agency who can better express the image of the VW brand.

According to Tim Ellis, VP-marketing at Volkswagen of America, "The Volkswagen brand needs to inspire our base of enthusiasts as well as reach out and captivate those in mainstream America. Therefore, we are re-evaluating all areas of our business and after careful considerations have decided to take the necessary steps to ensure we have the right agency partner in place."

So, with that, VW bids farewell to CP&B.

And in honor of Bill Bernbach, the great originator of the Volkswagen brand (and thanks to Rodney Mason for this) I give you 12 inspiring quotes:

1) The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.

2) Word of mouth is the best medium of all.

3) It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator's skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writings, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it. He therefore becomes a student of how people read or listen.

4) Nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make.

5) You can say the right thing about a product and nobody will listen. You've got to say it in such a way that people will feel it in their gut. Because if they don't feel it, nothing will happen.

6) Forget words like 'hard sell' and 'soft sell.' That will only confuse you. Just be sure your advertising is saying something with substance, something that will inform and serve the consumer, and be sure you're saying it like it's never been said before.

7) Just because your ad looks good is no insurance that it will get looked at. How many people do you know who are impeccably groomed... but dull?

8) No matter how skillful you are, you can't invent a product advantage that doesn't exist. And if you do, and it's just a gimmick, it's going to fall apart anyway.

9) Our job is to sell our clients' merchandise... not ourselves. Our job is to kill the cleverness that makes us shine instead of the product. Our job is to simplify, to tear away the unrelated, to pluck out the weeds that are smothering the product message.

10) Advertising doesn't create a product advantage. It can only convey it.

11) Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.

12) Properly practiced creativity must result in greater sales more economically achieved. Properly practiced creativity can lift your claims out of the swamp of sameness and make them accepted, believed, persuasive, urgent.

-Bill Bernbach