The Wunderkinder

Conservative West Germans, who have long sniffed at made-in-America marketing techniques, had never seen anything like it. Splashed in four vibrant colors across their newspapers not long ago were glossy-faced ads touting a new cigarette called Reyno, the Teutonic version of R.J. Reynolds' mentholated Salem. German smokers responded to the adman's tune like the children of Hamelin, promptly made Reyno one of the top selling cigarettes among more than 200 West German brands. And German ad agencies promptly began copying the four-color newspaper process, which was introduced to Germany by the flourishing Frankfurt branch of the U.S.'s Young & Rubicam.

Not So Friendly. The Reyno triumph was merely one more beachhead secured in an all-out Madison Avenue invasion of West Germany. Advertising in Europe's most affluent nation has risen into a billion-dollar-a-year business, up more than 300% in the past decade, and U.S. agencies are leading the field. A subsidiary of McCann-Erickson, called H. K. McCann GmbH, is now the largest advertising agency in Germany, with billings of $25 million; it has made "4711" cologne Germany's biggest TV advertiser, and pushes 30 other products ranging from Opel cars to Henkel soaps. In second place, with billings approaching $20 million, is J. Walter Thompson, which has helped to make the Ford Taurus Germany's hottest-selling medium-priced car, and has had to move to roomier offices seven times since it opened in West Germany nine years ago. Fastest growing of all is Young & Rubicam, which started in 1955 and has vaulted into the top ten among agencies by boosting its billings 300% this year to $13 million.

All told, five major U.S. agencies--the newest comers: Foote, Cone & Belding and Doyle Dane Bernbach--are now operating in West Germany. Not unnaturally, home-grown German agencies are wearying of the transatlantic competition. Sighed one U.S. agency chief in Frankfurt last week: "The German admen aren't so friendly these days. Like they don't even talk to us."

Percolating Sales. But the consumers are listening. Using U.S. market research techniques, Young & Rubicam knocked on doors, found that Germans believe Americans have a knack for brewing the world's tastiest coffee. Result: Y. & R. started advertising Maxwell House coffee as "America's Favorite Coffee," and sales have soared. After another Y. & R. ad campaign, R.J. Reynolds' Overstolz cigarette pulled out of a slump to become the only big-selling nonfilter smoke on the West German market.

Not all U.S. hard-sell techniques can be used in a land where the cartel philosophy lingers on, and where many people tend to scorn price discounting as a plot to put the little man out of business. German law forbids any claims that one product is better than a competing one; also banned are "Brand X" comparisons, bonus coupons, boxtop gimmicks, free tie-in offers and two for the price of one. An adman in Germany may boast that his client's soap washes white--but not whiter or whitest. Thus Y. & R. could not advertise that Remington shavers "have the biggest shaving head." But Remington captured 30% of the shaver market anyway, following another Y. & R. campaign of four-color newspaper ads.

Borrowing Words. Flattering their U.S. competitors by imitation, German agencies have adopted the U.S. pattern of servicing each major account with task forces of account executives, market researchers and other specialists. They have also borrowed U.S. advertising lingo. Today's German agencies are staffed by specialists such as der Layouter, der Texter and der Media-Mann. They work up die Marketing Proposition and test it on einem Consumer Panel. If it goes over, they prepare eine Direct Mail Kampagne or perhaps TV spots, always hammering home ein guter Slogan. They then make die Presentation to der Client. And along with its catchy words, Madison Avenue has also exported many of its contagious habits. Mused one Frankfurt adman: "Not so long ago when a German ordered 'drei Martini' he meant three Italian vermouths. Now some of them are such purists they even disdain the olives."

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