• by Paul Gough , July 26, 2002

A Detroit advertising agency has been awarded the U.S. Postal Service’s advertising contract, in a two-year deal worth about $100 million a year.

Campbell-Ewald of Detroit will be partnered with other Interpublic agencies, Golin/Harris, DraftWorldwide and Initiative Media, to handle all Postal Service advertising from creative to media buying and everything in between.

“It’s across the board,” said Larry Speakes, the Postal Service’s manager of advertising. The contract has three one-year renewal options. It doesn’t include the work done by three other agencies – Bravo, Chisholm-Mingo and Asian Partners – who handle multicultural advertising.

“The expertise these groups bring are important to us,” Speakes said. “They’ve got a lot to offer us.”

Thursday’s decision capped a three-month review of the Postal Service’s advertising contracts, sparked by financial losses suffered after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the anthrax mailings. The Postal Service contract had been handled by a group of other agencies: Leo Burnett USA (creative); Foote, Cone and Belding; MediaCom (media buying) Worldwide (direct marketing); and Frankel (point-of-purchase).

These agencies had collaborated on a campaign to urge small- and medium-size businesses to use Priority Mail and Express Mail as well as direct-mailed ads. That campaign will run through mid-September, Speakes said.

Campbell-Ewald’s contract will kick off with a holiday mailing campaign scheduled to start in November. Other campaigns will develop, although Speakes said it wasn’t exclusive and he didn’t rule out using another agency for a campaign if an extraordinary situation arose. The Postal Service did that late last year, when it went outside the consortium to produce the “Pride” TV commercials that used Carly Simon’s “Let The River Run” and postal workers doing their jobs. But Speakes said they didn’t anticipate doing that again.

Cost savings was a major factor in the decision. The Postal Service expects to save millions every year with the new contract. Speakes said one of the appeals of the Campbell-Ewald proposal was that the campaign would be housed in a single building in Detroit, Campbell-Ewald’s home base.

Speakes and the five-member review team also liked Campbell-Ewald’s longevity and their client list, which includes Chevrolet, the U.S. Navy and Pier 1.

“They have a lot of experienced people that are handling our account,” Speakes said. “We saw that, we liked their creative, the breadth of their services that are housed in one building. We were impressed by their client list.”

Campbell-Ewald is the ninth-largest advertising agency, with headquarters in Detroit and offices in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

Campbell-Ewald said it was pleased to have won the contract in competition with the 20 of the nation’s best advertising agencies.

“The Campbell-Ewald/DraftWorldWide team with our associates at Golin/Harris and Initiative Media look forward to committing our marketing and communications expertise to the success of this great American institution,” said Campbell-Ewald CEO Tony Hopp.

One thing that won’t be changing is the Postal Service’s new slogan: “Brought to you by the U.S. Postal Service.” Postal officials are happy with the slogan.

“It resonates well,” Speakes said. “It describes exactly what we do.”