I thought this was interesting enough to report on, so I will. Volkswagen of America has announced that it has put its US account, valued between $220-250 million (not including digital and direct marketing) in review. Crispin, Porter + Bogusky who has handled the account since 2005, was invited to participate in the review but will not participate siting "As a rule, we do not participate in reviews
for current account and this will not be an exception."
There is much industry controversy over the VW account since 2005 when then VP of Marketing Kerri Martin change the lead agency of 10 years, Arnold, to CP+B without a review. Kerri Martin had worked previously with CP+B when she was the marketing communications manager at MINI USA. There is speculation that CP+B will soon be announced the lead agency for Coda Automotive, a California-based electric car start up where Ms. Martin was recently hired as CMO.
As for the VW review the likely agencies to be invited could be Deutsch who has been working with GM's Saturn but the parent company is trying to sell so Deustch would no longer have a car client. DDB handles creative chores in Europe, New Zealand and Singapore. Goodby, Silverstein & Partners until recently handled Hyundai but the Korean-based car maker has moved the majority of the account in-house. Arnold has been tossed into the ring seeing as Tim Ellis VW's client vp, marketing was tired in 2007 from Volvo and while at Volvo Mr. Ellis hired Arnold as their lead agency.
Accounts this size don't seem to go into play very often, so expect any agency involved to pull out all the stops. As I mentioned keep an eye out for Coda to announce the hiring of CP+B which would be unfortunate for creative boutique Droga5 who was recently hired in June 2009.
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