Here’s a nice one for some lucky agency. Campaign reports that VW-owned Skoda, which is winning sales and plaudits left, right and centre (to the point where VW told it to put up its prices) is looking for a new global agency to handle everything from ads to CRM to social media.
Its European account is currently with Publicis-owned Fallon and includes a Prague office in Skoda’s homeland.
Back in the day Fallon produced a number of campaigns that served to reposition Skoda as a challenger car brand (below), far removed from its reputation as an Eastern Bloc clunker.
Recently Fallon has been running a UK campaign featuring Sir Bradley Wiggins but that’s a modern day clunker.
Publicis recently folded Fallon into Leo Burnett (it was in Saatchi & Saatchi for a while) suggesting it doesn’t figure very highly in Arthur Sadoun’s scheme of things. But successful Skoda is worth having. Publicis recently won Mercedes in Europe and won’t want to follow that win with a loss. BBDO lost Mercedes and owner Omnicom has strong ties to the VW empire through DDB and media agency PHD.
So it should be an interesting competition. Publicis’ new Mercedes agency is called Emil. What’s the betting on another bespoke effort?
