General Motors Dissolves Commonwealth Partnership Among Ad Agencies

The Wall Street Journal reports that General Motors (NYSE: GM) is altering its global advertising strategy again.McCann and Campbell Ewald are both owned by Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), the ad shift helps General Motors put most of its Cadillac and Chevrolet advertising under one company, noted the WSJ. This will be Campbell Ewald's second stint working with General Motors after the world's second-largest automaker severed its 91-year relationship with the firm in 2010, as noted the WSJ. The Detroit-based firm planned slate most of its Chevrolet advertising work to McCann Worldgroup by the end of March. This move will end the Commonwealth partnership between McCann and Omnicom Group's (NYSE: OMC) Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. The WSJ noted that the automaker's executives have become increasingly dissatisfied with the partnership's inability to keep up with an increasing workload. General Motors is also in the process of transferring its Cadillac global advertising business from Publicis Groupe SA's (OTC: PUBGY) Fallon Worldwide to Michigan advertising agency Campbell Ewald. Interpublic Hits Six-Year HighWith more General Motors advertising work heading its way, Interpublic has risen to a six year high. The stock has hovered around $13 since the end of February and has now risen to its highest point since February of 2007. Interpublic is up over one percent on Wednesday.Omnicom and Publicis Trading FlatInterestingly, despite the pending loss of business for both companies, Omnicom and Publicis are trading roughly flat on Wednesday. Omnicom has hovered in the high-$50s since early March and continues to do so, resting at just over $59 as of this writing. Publicis has held steady at a bit above $17 as continues to do so on Wednesday. General Motors Down SlightlyGeneral Motors' stock has been on a gradual upswing over the last three weeks, having climbed seven percent. However, market reaction to its latest shift in advertising has been unenthusiastic at best. Treasury Sells More GM StockGeneral Motors continues to shed its “Government Motors” stigma as the US Treasury has sold off additional shares. According to The Detroit News, Uncle Sam sold 17.2 to 18.1 million shares of GM stock in February. This is in-line with Benzinga's December report that the Treasury intends to fully divest from General Motors by sometime in 2014. The stock is on a minor backslide, trading down around 0.5 percent on Wednesday.