United Airlines’ rather intriguing competition for its prized $70 million advertising account will find five agencies going to school Wednesday at the carrier.
The agencies, including Leo Burnett Co., United’s agency since 1965, at a briefing here will be given a business problem that may or may not be advertising-related, insiders say.
Solving that problem and presenting strategic thinking will bring all these agencies back by late September to United’s offices, either in Elk Grove Township or at an off-site location, such as the Sheraton Gateway Suites in Rosemont, where United held a credentials meeting Aug. 13 and 14.
New meetings will be held the week of Sept. 23, sources also say.
United has said it will pare the five semifinalists to two or three agencies for final presentations, which will be made before United’s top management in October.
United had expected to have the finalists identified by now, but, like what sometimes happens to jetliners, it made an unscheduled stop, and added another round to the presentations.
Burnett will be hard-pressed to keep this business.
Young & Rubicam’s New York headquarters, which will be working with Y&R Chicago, still appears to be the favorite to win this account, if United decides to dump Burnett.
Landing United would be a coup for Y&R, which has been successful in new-business prospecting in the northwest suburbs, having gotten a big piece of advertising from Sears, Roebuck and Co. in Hoffman Estates.
The sleeper in this entire competition may well be TBWA Chiat/Day, whose New York and Venice, Calif., offices are involved in the pitch.
Other semifinalists are Ammirati Puris Lintas, a Manhattan-based agency, and Fallon McElligott in Minneapolis.
A letter from United sent to the contending agencies also asked how they would staff an account team, and what they might suggest in financial remuneration.
Burnett is said to be working on 15 percent commission on advertising placed in media. While commissions are still part of the ad business, agency-client relationships increasingly have gone to a fee system, which may or may not involve incentives for agency performance. UAL may well be thinking of a reduced commission, but the financial aspect of its relationship with Burnett is not the problem.
Wilson picks Baugh: As expected, Jim Baugh moved up to president of Wilson Sporting Goods Co., from his post as VP-general manager of its racquet-sports division. Baugh, who will be 46 Wednesday, has done a particularly outstanding job with racquet sports. As president, Baugh will head up Wilson’s operations in the U.S. and Canada and foreign units other than Wilson Europe and Wilson Japan. Those units will report to Roger Talermo, chief executive officer of Amer Group Ltd., Wilson’s Helsinki, Finland, parent. Talermo also is chairman and CEO of Wilson. Baugh also will have global responsibility for Wilson’s marketing strategies, branding and product development. Wilson did not immediately announce a successor to Baugh as boss of racquet sports or its golf division. Kim Ignatius, who had been VP-general manager of that latter unit, is leaving the company.
– Levi Strauss & Co., best-known for its Levi’s jeans and Dockers khakis, will shortly introduced Slates, a men’s casual-dress line. The San Francisco-based firm will spend $20 million for marketing, including advertising, in the introduction of Slates.
On the move: John A. Rowady promoted to manager, Midwest ad sales, in Raycom Sports’ Chicago office, which also added Moira Scully as an account representative. . .Michael J. Enzweiler named Midwest managing director, including marketing responsibilities, for San Francisco-based Industrial Indemnity.
Strictly Personal: Birthday greetings to Grant Golden, Dorothy Levenberg, Phil Gant, Paula Zimmerman, Bonnie A. Rarick, Drucilla Handy, Tiffani Cailor and H. Gene Silverberg.
– Former Chicagoan Steven Rosenblaum, a senior vice president and account director with Grey Advertising in Los Angeles, next week joins General Motors Corp.’s Cadillac Motor Car division in Warren, Mich., as ad manager.
Shelly Sobie, president of Creative Benefits, a promotions firm specializing in direct marketing, was named president-elect for the 1997-98 year beginning next August for the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing.
Another former Chicagoan Norman Kerr, recently senior VP-marketing for Papa John’s International, a pizza firm in Louisville, returned here as a VP-management supervisor at Cramer-Krasselt Chicago.
