McCann's Neel brings world to GM table

DETROIT -- Garry Neel says he was shocked to discover that key executives of the McCann Erickson advertising agency who handle General Motors accounts worldwide had never gathered to share ideas.

Neel, 49, who became McCann's first worldwide account director for GM nine months ago, was in a position to change that. McCann is the automaker's biggest global advertising agency partner.

In January, Neel assembled the GM network's 40 top executives in Detroit. They brainstormed best advertising practices for the automaker.

"I needed to evaluate the level of resources we had around the world on the GM business and look where we needed additional strength and build on key learnings," Neel says.

Neel also heads McCann's office in the Detroit suburb of Troy, Mich., as executive vice president and managing director.

Neel says "there weren't too many weak areas" in the network's GM offices. But he concedes he smoothed out "a rocky period" in a market he refused to identify. His solution? Hiring fresh blood.

"We made a huge turnaround in the relationship," he says.

Neel helped the Interpublic Group of Companies agency win a coveted prize a few months ago: the launch of GM's Chevrolet brand in China. He says he helped McCann's team in China "make sure we had the right focus."

Roger Adams, GM's executive director of North American corporate advertising and marketing, says he met Neel in early 2001 when Adams was general manager of Buick, a McCann client.

"Garry Neel has added focus on executions and continues to impress a lot of people in our organization," Adams says.

Adams says he was impressed with how Neel integrated McCann's services with Buick, including work for its golf and events programs.

"He's an idea man, and he's also able to juggle a lot of tasks," Adams says. "He wears many hats for GM and Buick."

Neel handled regional advertising accounts for Infiniti in the late 1980s and Chevrolet in California in the early 1990s. He moved to Detroit to head the national Chevrolet account at the Campbell-Ewald ad agency.

Interpublic assigned Neel to Zurich, Switzerland, in 1997 to coordinate GM's accounts. Neel returned to the United States in 2000 to run McCann's Troy office.

"We had gone through some difficult times in this office," Neel says. "We needed to refocus this office to be much more integrated and creative and more aggressive in how we approached new business."

Shortly after his arrival, McCann won GM's corporate advertising account. That account was worth $305 million in 2003, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMR.

Several creative employees Neel wanted to hire balked at moving to Michigan. So instead, Neel transferred associate creative director Michael Joiner to McCann's New York office in June, with GM's blessing, to oversee a satellite staff.

Says Neel: "It's a bit of an experiment."