Professional Year in Review

Volkswagen's U.S. market share is up. Click here for the Bloomberg article.

CP+B wins Creativity Agency of the Year. Click here.

CP+B wins AdWeek Agency of the Year. Click here.

[Late breaking update, 1.19.09:] CP+B wins AdAge Agency of the Year. Hat trick. Click here.

It's no secret it was a tough year for the auto industry. Below are each manufacturer's U.S. numbers for December 2008 and the whole year vs. 2007. We're down -4.4%. American companies like Chrysler are down -30% (Chrysler's December '08 was down -53.1% over 2007's December - OUCH.) Mighty Toyota? 2008's total is down -15.4% Only Subaru was above zero at 0.3% over 2007's numbers. Gotta hand it to them.

CP+B played an important role, especially in the sales event messaging and dealer relations, but as much as I'd like to say advertising played the largest role, I can also see the argument against that. When you look at all the numbers together, you realize that product plays a major role. When you make a better product (read: better value) it tends to sell better. Especially when times are tough. That's one big reason VW was #2 in the industry (not counting ultra luxury brands like Aston Martin that inversely had an amazing 2008).

The other thing the numbers tell me is that my team at work was robbed this year. Robbed by a wheezing economy. All the signs point to 2008 possibly having been the year that VW took off and showed the states why they sell more cars than anyone else in Europe, China and Brazil. 2008 could have been our year. Instead, it was nobody's year. But we're better poised to launch out of the gate when the economy rebounds. Keep your radios tuned for that kids, then you can say Uncle Eric told you so.