Cadillac drops Detroit-based Lowe Campbell Ewald for advertising

Cadillac has parted with Detroit-based Lowe Campbell Ewald for advertising, the luxury brand of General Motors announced in a statement Thursday.

DETROIT, MI – Cadillac has parted with Detroit-based Lowe Campbell Ewald for advertising, the luxury brand of General Motors announced in a statement Thursday. 

The company has named Paris-based Publicis Worldwide its advertising agency of record. 

"This appointment is designed to accelerate the global expansion and elevation of Cadillac into a truly global luxury brand," Cadillac Chief Marketing Officer Uwe Ellinghaus said in a statement. "We have spent much of this year refocusing on the core values of our brand. Adding Publicis Worldwide to our team —with its undisputed expertise in luxury brand building — will further our progress globally."

LCE had been working with Cadillac since 2013 through Lowe and Partners, part of Interpublic Group of Companies. 

In July 2013, the parent company of then-Campbell Ewald folded the firm into Lowe and Partners Worldwide, and renamed it Lowe Campbell Ewald.

The month before, that same year, Campbell Ewald, Lowe and Hill Holiday had come together to form a new agency called Rogue, working specifically for General Motors' luxury brand.

Advertising Age is reporting that the loss for LCE amounts to about $280 million in annual measured media spend.

"We sincerely appreciate the dedication and service the Lowe team has brought to our brand," Ellinghaus said in the release. "The agency has aided Cadillac in a time of transition and contributed significantly to the development of its brand positioning."

GM announced in September that it is moving the global headquarters of its Cadillac luxury brand to the Soho section of New York City in 2015.

At the same time, the Detroit automaker is spinning Cadillac off as a separate business unit. Calling the move an expansion to New York, GM said creating the new business unit will help it pursue new growth opportunities in the luxury automotive segment.

"With the relentless upward repositioning of successive new-generation Cadillac products, the next logical step is to provide Cadillac more freedom to cultivate the brand in pursuit of further global growth," GM President Dan Ammann said in a statement in September.